Humanity (Season 1)
by SazzaCubz13
Summary: Blair Ford, the daughter of Nate Ford, chummys her dad to a meeting that turns out to be life changing for them both. Her dad is hired to recover stolen designs. Helping him are Parker, a Thief; Alec Hardison, a Internet specialist; Eliot Spencer, a "retrieval Specialist" and a martial artist; and Sophie Devereuax, a grifter. Blair now finds herself in a mad world
1. Chapter 1

_" Parker, have you ever robbed a bank that's being robbed?"_

 _"There's a first time for everything. "_

 **SUMMARY**

Blair Ford, the daughter of Nate Ford, a well known insurance investor who almost always recovered the stolen goods his employer hired him for. But that was her old dad. The Dad she had now was still brilliant but had a lot more baggage due to the deal of her brother. Blair chummys her dad to a meeting that turns out to be life changing for them both. Her dad is hired to recover stolen designs. Helping him are Parker, a Thief; Alec Hardison, a Internet specialist; Eliot Spencer, a "retrieval Specialist" and a martial artist; and Sophie Devereuax, a grifter. With her dad as the brains, Blair soon finds herself as the heart and humanity of the little team. Together, they have the ability to target the greediest and most unjust people.

(Season 1 )

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 **CAST**

 _Sarah Hyland as Blair Ford_

 _Timothy Hutton as Nate Ford_

 _Gina Bellman asSophie Devereaux_

 _Beth Riesgraf as Parker, Christian Kane as Elliot Spencer, and Aldis Hodge as Alec Hardison_

 _Mark Sheppard as Jim Sterling_

 _Dave Franco as Zach Sterling_

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 **I am excited to write this and i hope you all enjoy it!**

 ***I will be posting these in the order of the DVD Box-sets so they may be in a different order than how they aired***

 **Love**

 **SazzaCubz 13 xxx**

 ***This is also on wattpad***


	2. Chapter 2

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 1, The Nigerian Job ~ Pt. 1**

* * *

Blair Ford looked both left and right, then left again before she crossed the street, her destination the bar in the posh hotel on the corner. Hoisting her backpack onto her shoulder so it was more comfortable she couldn't help but wonder how her dad would react to seeing her. He probably would wonder why she was at a bar in the middle of the day instead of at school, then he would ask if her mother knew where she was. The answer to that question was not yet, Maggie would soon know however and hopefully it would be too late for her to do anything. Hey, she left a note and she was simply going to her other parent, that's better than most kids when they disappear. Finding her dad had been too easy, one quick glance a find a friend on her iPhone and she was sorted, though she didn't seem surprised to find her dad in a bar. As she walked through the lobby of the hotel and into the bar, she noticed how the whole room was empty apart from a man sitting slumped at the end, as far away from the main door as possible. This was Nate Ford, her father. Slowly walking towards him she heard the waiter say "I checked, airport shuttle's in 15 minutes" and as she sat down next to her dad the waiter gave her a strange look, before walking off.

"So, are you off on holiday then?" she asked, not bothering to look at the man. His hand faltered as he poured vodka into the coke that was sitting in front of him, and once the bottle was empty he turned to look at the person sitting next to him. Blair hadn't seen her father in person since the divorce, mainly because her mother didn't trust Nate as a father (though he was the parent Blair would have rather lived with). She looked almost like his double, but in female form, and she always felt closer to her dad, he understood her better than her mother whose paintings always came first.

"B-Blair?" she heard him whisper and she looked at him finally,

"Hi daddy." Was all she could muster as she sent him a small smile. Before Nate could reply a nervous voice spoke from behind them,

"I'm sorry Mr. Ford, I'm sorry" Both Blair and Nate turned to see a dumpy looking man approaching them. "I know who you are. I've eh, I've read all about you." It took everything in Blair not to snort, it seemed her father had a fangirl. Though the distraction he created was welcomed by Blair who wanted to keep all questions away from her till it was too late and her dad was stuck with her. The man leaned on the bar and looked at Nate, it was like Blair was invisible as he spoke, "I know, for example, that found that stolen Monet painting, in Florence. Probably saved your insurance company, 20-25 million dollars" Blair raised her eyebrows a little at this, she knew her dad did well in his old job but seriously go dad! "Then there was the identity thief thing, and you saved your insurance company I don't even know how many millions of dollars." The man paused to get his breath back and Blair glanced at her dad who was imply drinking his drink through its tiny straw almost as if he couldn't hear the guy. "But, I just eh, when you needed them," Blair closed her eyes, this guy wasn't going to bring up what she thought he was going to bring up, "what happened to your family is the kinda thing-"

"You know!" Blair's dad interrupted, placing his glass down and finally acknowledging the man, "this is the part of the conversation where I ask my daughter to look away as I punch you in the neck around ten times. We are coming up on that part pretty quick." Nate said bluntly and the man looked at Blair as if just realising she was there then back to her dad once again, a little scared.

"I just want to offer you a job." He stated

"What you got?" The man looked wearily at Blair until her dad put his hand on the back of her chair and said, "You can speak freely in front of Blair, she won't tell a soul" As if to back up her dad's point, Blair mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.

"Do you know anything about airplane design?" the man asked, lowering his voice and leaning forward so the two could hear him.

"I can draw a good cartoon airplane..." Blair muttered as her dad said,

"I could give it a shot, you just need to give me a pencil and one of those little rules..." it seemed this wasn't the answer the small plump man wanted as he rolled his eyes before saying,

"Somebody stole my airplane designs." He said in an urgent tone.

"Ahh, I see." Nate said in an all knowing tone of voice, "And you'd like me to find them."

"No. I know where they are." Blair looked confused, if this guy knew where his stupid pictures were, why was he interrupting her dad time? "I want you, to steal them back." Blair snorted at this, causing both her dad and the man to look at her funny.

"You can't be serious?" she said, looking at him.

"Oh, but I am." Blair looked at her dad and she could see the gleam in his eye. The crazy man was going to agree to this.

Blair frowned from the window of where her and her father were to play lookout from across the street from Pierson Aviation the tall building they were stealing stupid airplane plans from. She glanced back at her watch once again, her dad was to arrive at any moment. The door swung open and she wasn't surprised to see her dad enter and give her a smile. As much as she was enjoying the father daughter bonding time, she really wasn't happy they were stealing. Blair watched as her father placed a laptop onto the empty table in the room and opened it typing. Blair glanced back out the window the conversation with the man they were doing this for coming back to her easily.

The moment her dad had agreed to the job, Victor Dubenich moved them to a tabled to pass her dad a file which had everything he needed to know in it. "Are you sure Peterson stole your designs" her dad said after Victor went through the file for them.

"Oh, my life's work was in those files which disappears, then one week later Peterson announces an identical project, come on." Blair nodded, it seemed likely that this Peterson bloke who needed to learn what a nose hair trimmer was had stolen the files, from the story anyway.

"I don't know though, stealing them back seems like a stupid idea." Blair said, they were the ones who got her involved she was simply telling them her thoughts.

"Just listen to me," Victor said as he noticed Nate agree with Blair with a single nod of his head, "at the end of this month I have a shareholders meeting, Mr. Ford. I've spent, already five years, hundreds of hours, on this deal. If I go to the meeting with nothing to show them, then I am dead." Blair's initial thought was that this chubby guy next to her was overly dramatic, but before she could say that he was already pushing more paper towards her dad, "look, at the people I've already hired, do you recognise any of these?" Blair glanced at the names as he father did.

"Yeah, I chased all of them, one time or the other," her father said and a name popped out at Blair and she was quick to turn to look at Victor

"Parker? You got Parker!"

"You really shouldn't admire thieves," was her father's murmur as Victor nodded, "you do realise Parker is insane?" her dad told victor not looking up from the files.

"Which is why I need you," he told Nate.

"No. I'm not a thief" this comment caused Blair to laugh and nod her head a little in agreement. It's true her father was the opposite of a thief.

"Thieves I've got, what I need is one," he paused and looked at Blair, "maybe two, honest men to watch them."

And that was the stupid conversation that had them watching a building all night. The whirring noise of the projector was heard and she looked away from the window to see the blueprints of the building on the wall behind her father. Blair moved forward to the table as her father handed her a coms unit, "This is stupid."

"So you've told me already." Was the reply she got before they both placed the coms into their ears, "okay, clear coms," her father said as they waited for a reply.

"No. no. no. no." They instantly heard in their ears and Blair knew instantly that this was Alec Hardison, as he started talking about technology in a way she didn't quite follow.

"Alright," was her father's response to Hardison saying he had better equipment for them to use, "no surprises now."

"I've been doing this since high school, bro, I'm hacking disciplined."

"Remind me to get him to change my grades to A's" Blair told her father, who shot her a look, however Hardison responded back to her with a simple,

"Consider it done, little Miss." Causing her to grin happily, ignoring the look her father was giving her. What? He was making her stand watch in the middle of the night, she was getting something out of it. Next to join them on coms was Elliot Spencer, his southern twang was instantly recognisable as he informed their tech geek he wasn't useless. Blair glanced over at her dad who tilted his head as the two started to argue like children. Finally the person Blair was most looking forward to hearing joined the line, "Hey guys!"

"Parker!" Blair whisper squealed at her dad who gave her a fond smile as she fangirled slightly over the thief.

It was a weird sensation hearing voices in your ear, and Blair was still getting used to it as her father realised what they were saying. They both heard Parker sigh in fondness as she said, "I've not used this rig since Paris."

"Are you talking about the Carabagio? You stole that?" her dad asked, causing Blair to roll her eyes. It was Parker, of course she did.

"Guys listen up." Blair spoke clearly, as she heard Hardison and Elliot start to argue again, and her dad gave her a grateful smile as both men stopped talking.

"on my count no second sooner," Nate said as he walked to were his daughter was standing by the window to watch Parker leap off the roof. "Parker no freelancing."

"Nate, mini Ford, relax." Elliot spoke, "we know what we're doing."

"So on the count of five. Four. Three..."

"She's gone!" Elliot said, and Blair let out a laugh as she saw the almost invisible figure fly off the roof. If it wasn't for the fact she was looking for it she knew she would have missed it. "That's twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag" was Elliot's comment and all of them couldn't help but agreeing.

It seemed they were all moving to do what they needed to do, Blair left her father's side to stand next to the laptop. "Vibration detectors are on..." came Parker's voice in their ears.

"No cutting Parker, use the binary." Was Nate's response and Blair looked at him in amazement. She had to catch up on stealing lingo. Blair however shook her head, she needed to concentrate, her dad and her had come to the agreement he would be in charge over all but keep a close eye on Parker if she was the main source for Alec and Elliot, who should be dropping into the building and onto the top of the lift shaft.

"Boys are on their way" Parker informed them and Blair typed into the laptop to simulate what was going on in the building so her dad could get a clear idea on the blueprint.

"What are you getting with security?" her dad asked as soon as he could see the movement. "Do you see security?"

"They don't see a thing." Was the reply, causing Blair to smile. "Doors are open."

"It's show time..." Blair said before she could stop herself causing Hardison and Elliot to let out a small laugh. Blair had to admit as boring as it was simply listening into the trio in the building she was glad she wasn't in there with them. She was sure she would have screwed up royally by now if she was.

"Okay, have you got any chatter on their frequencies?" she heard her dad say and gave him a confused look as Parker asked the question they were both thinking

"No. why?"

"There is 8 listed on the duty roster but only four at the guard post" her dad explained to them.

"I can't even tell how many guys are in the room, how you can tell who's who?" this was something Blair could answer as she had an eye for details.

"Haircuts, Parker. Count the haircuts." Blair whispered to the girl. She knew she could talk normally but something about how tense the whole thing was cause her to whisper.

"I would have missed that." she heard the girl reply quietly,

"What?" her dad asked, and Blair told her self she would not tell a sole what she had heard the girl say.

"Nothing." Parker responded.

"Is there a problem?" Elliot's voice asked, and her dad glanced at her across the room and she shrugged. She had no idea.

"eh, maybe." He informed the hitter, "We'll run the cameras."

"I found them," Parker said almost instantly, as Hardison talked about passwords causing Blair to giggle, "They are doing their walkthrough an hour early! Why the hell..."

"Because it's the play offs" Nate said in realisation, "they're doing their rounds an hour early so they can watch the play offs. Alright where are they?"

"They're at the stairwell!" Parker said almost franticly. And Blair typed quickly onto the laptop to zoom in onto the area that Parker was talking about for her dad.

"Okay," Nate said, "this is what we are going to do, we're gonna squelch them." Blair had no clue what that was, but she pulled a face at the word. It didn't sound nice, and she really hoped the others knew what her dad meant. "Elliot, what I want you to do is clear the zone and use Hardison as bait."

"Bait, whoa hold on." Harrison's voice instantly came to their ears, "I ain't nobodies bait"

"Sorry," Blair whispered to him though she knew everyone body could hear her, though soon Hardison talking to his little opening machine was heard and it drowned out her small voice.

"Hardison, they are almost there" Parker told them as she watched from the security feed and Blair crossed her fingers under the table, she liked the sound of Hardison and didn't want him to be hurt. He still had to change all her grades for her. Soon the sounds of punching and grunting filled their ears and Blair could only assume that it was Elliot's doing, and though this was something she would never admit to thinking in front of her dad anyway, she really hope he bashed the guys heads in. what she wanted all A's this year, Hardison was the guaranteed way to get that.

"That's what I do." Was what they heard from Elliot after a moment of silence, and Blair let out the breath she had been holding. They were all okay.

"Guys, guys you gotta talk to us!" Nate all but shouted to them, causing Blair to roll her eyes.

"Please talk to us, as he is getting grumpy with no information." She informed them.

"It's all good, I am stripping the drive right now." Hardison told them, and Blair gave her dad a look as if to say 'see nothing to worry about'. "I've got all the designs, I've got all the back-ups. We're leaving them bare."

"Now the spike!" Nate said simply, and Blair knew that meant they were shutting down the system because they could, and also to give the team on the inside a way out of the building.

"There is a problem" Parker said simply, "the guards you knocked out, they reset all the alarms on the roof and the floors above, we can't go up."

This caused all of them to go silent, until Blair turned to her dad who caught her eye. He could see a plan forming in her head and nodded nice to simply say, let's do it. She could hear them all arguing about everyman for themselves as she took a deep breath. "Guys I have a plan." This caused them all to fall silent, "I know you guys don't play well, but please just trust me. Not my dad but me. Blair. Mini Ford." She told them getting to her feet, her voice sounded a lot more confident that she felt but she knew she needed them to trust her, "get to the elevator, and head down." She told them.

"We're going to do the burns scam," her dad told them having caught on to what Blair was thinking. They could hear the others moving off towards the elevator and packed up their stuff, "How did you know about that scam?" her dad asked her and Blair shot him a mischievous look.

"I like to read you casefiles." She told him simply.

"We're going with plan B?" Hardison said over the coms,

"Technically this would be plan G."

"How many plans do you two have? Is there like a plan M?"

"Yep," Blair informed them, "Hardison dies though in that plan"

"I like the sound of Plan M," came Elliot's voice and Blair rolled her eyes as her and her dad waited for them in the car outside the building, Blair with her window rolled down so she could see the well-known trio properly. Parker was the first she saw, hobbling out of the glass doors, the burn make up on her face looking real, with the dark skinned man Blair knew to be Hardison helping her and Elliot in the rear. They all slipped into the car easily and Blair shot her dad as mile. They had done it. And no one had been caught.

"You must be Little Miss." Hardison said, and Blair turned to face them all with a grin,

"Its soo cool I'm meeting you guys."

"you should really not know who these criminals are," she heard her dad mutter as he drove off, "or even fangirl over them,"

They all met up once again in the early hours of the morning. Blair, who was in her pyjamas and a large jumper, had not been given any coffee so had decided against talking or really responding to anyone. She was just going to listen in her grumpy cat state until her father gave her coffee. "Come on hurry up." She heard her dad say as he looked at Hardison who was holding his laptop out.

"I've got a couple wifi networks with some crappy bandwidth." The dark man explained, before the laptop started beeping, "There we go. The designs are sent."

"Great. Now I can go back to bed." Blair muttered grumpily causing Parker, who was standing next to her, to let out a small laugh at the girls comment.

"Alright, alright" Nate said looking at Blair who was grumpier than ever and rolling his eyes at her as he pulled her in for a hug before turning to look at their dysfunctional team. "The money will be in all your accounts later today." he told them.

"Anybody else notice how hard we rocked last night." Hardison said causing a smile to appear on Blair's face, there was something about the dark skinned man that just relaxed her and made her happy.

"Yeah, well one show only," Elliot said as he started to walk away, "no encores."

"I've already forgotten your names." Parker chimed in.

"Seriously guys?" Blair said causing the bickering to stop before it started.

"You know, it was kinda cool being on the same side," Hardison said breaking the silence, however Blair's dad did not this like response. He let go of Blair and walked over to Hardison

"No, we are not on the same side. I am not a thief."

"You are now." Blair said quietly, though all of them could hear her. Her comment caused her dad to stop and look back at her. "We both are."

"Come on Nathan, tell the truth." Parker teased, "Didn't you have a little bit of fun, playing the black king instead of the white knight. Just this once?" Blair snorted as her dad didn't even bother replying to the girl, instead he just turned on his heel and walked away, putting an arm around Blair and making her walk with him. Blair shot her new friends a smile and a wave, which they all happily returned. Though the moment they realised they were waving they shot each other a look and instantly walked away from each other two. As Blair climbed back into bed, hoping to get a few more hours sleep before her dad made her go back to her mother, she couldn't help but feel a little sad. That was probably the last time she would see the odd group again, though she had noted Hardison had added her on all social media. It was a bitter sweet kind of feeling and those where the thoughts that lulled her to sleep.

The next day she had not expected to be driving to an old aircraft facility outside the city. Her father had woken her up saying something about the designs not arriving and he needed to talk to the team again, before thrusting a cup of coffee into Blair's waiting hands. In fact on their drive he had bought her a large Starbucks so she was semi human for meeting the team, he needed her as he knew the group pf thief's all had a soft spot for her (everyone who met Blair liked her, it was one of her mother's qualities in her). "This is creepy" was Blair's only comment as she trailed behind her dad as they walked into the facility, her heeled boots making noise on the cement floor, her coffee still in her hand which she sipped in a lazy like fashion.

"Do you want me to tell you what happened with the designs?" the familiar voice of Hardison was heard, followed by Elliot's voice,

"What makes you think _I_ , know what happened? stupid!"

The father daughter duo turned the corner and instantly saw the two men, Hardison seemed to have a gun pointed at Elliot who didn't seem to bothered, though that wasn't surprising given who they were. It was clear, though Blair blanked most if it out, that they were arguing over the files.

"HEY!" her father shouted, causing Blair to snap back to reality and almost spill her coffee causing her to pout a little, though that was the least of their problems as when she looked back up Hardison was pointing the gun now at them.

"Did you two do it?" Elliot asked, as her dad walked towards them, and Blair gave him a look from behind her father. Why on earth would she double cross them? She just wanted to be with her Dad, she was more than happy. Elliot seemed to realise that accusing Blair was stupid, but that didn't mean Nate didn't do it, "you are the only one who has ever played both sides."

"Yeah, you seem pretty relaxed for a guy with a gun pointed at you." Nate commented, and Blair snorted, causing all three of them to look at her.

"He's _Elliot Spencer_ dad," she explained as if her dad was stupid, causing a smile to break out on Elliot's face.

"Mornin', Mini Ford" he greeted happily and Blair shot him a smile before sipping her coffee, "plus the safety is still on," he said glancing at Hardison

"Like imma fall for that" Hardison said with a roll of his eyes.

"No, no. he's right." Blair's dad spoke up, looking at the gun, "the safety is still on." Hardison looked at the gun, giving Nate enough time to grab it from him. "Blair, hold this." He spoke, his eyes not leaving the two men, and Blair took the gun from him, holding it away from her like it was a smelly fish or something. "Are you armed?" he asked, looking at Elliot and it took everything in Blair not to roll her eyes. Did her dad not even read the files they were given on these people. Elliot was a weapon.

"I don't like guns." Was the southerners reply. There was a click from behind them and they all turned to see Parker, gun aloft this time the safety was defiantly off.

"My money is not in my account." She spoke calmly as she approached them, "that makes me cry inside. In my special, angry place."

"Okay Parker..." Nate said calmly like you would to a wild animal, reaching over and taking her gun off her also.

"Did you all come here to get paid?" Blair asked from behind her dad, frowning as she realised what their complaint was.

"It was supposed to be a walk away, I wasn't meant to see you again."

"And the only reason you guys are here is because you didn't get paid..." Nate paused having finally realised what Blair was on about, and he turned to face her laughing a little before pressing a kiss to her forehead. Nate then turned to the group, "oh you're pissed off" he informed the group before laughing a little more. Blair wasn't surprised to get three looks her way, all of them asking the silent question of if her father was mad and honestly Blair couldn't tell them no. her father did seem rather mad at that moment, so Blair left him to his laughing as she explained to them the train of thought she had had.

"The only way to get us all in the same place, at the same time, was to tell us that we're not. Getting. Paid." She emphasised the last three words, as her father's laugher died out. It seemed as if he had just thought of something. Unknown to Blair it seemed the others realised that too. Whatever they had all realised she had not caught on as instantly they were running Elliot having grabbed her arm as he passed her pulled her behind her, "My coffee!" she yelled lamely as she watched the warm brown liquid fall to the ground.

"I'll owe you another on, Mini Ford" the man yelled as they ran from the building. Just as they reached the outside there was an explosion from the inside, the impact of the blast caused all of them to fall to the ground and Blair realised in that moment how close she was to death. Honestly she did not like that idea or that feeling. How many cats had she not pet yet? How many types of coffee had she not tried? Hell! She hadn't even finished high school! She was not ready to die!

"Daddy..." she whispered as she crawled over to where her dad lay on the ground, smiling weakly when she saw him still breathing. Thank god for that. She didn't want to go back to her mother. Happy with that thought she allowed the blackness to take over.

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 **I hope you like it, i'm loving Blair and if you have any ideas for her (she needs a life outside this lot does she not?) please comment them away**

 **Love**

 **Sazzacubz 13 xx**

 ***This is on wattpad too***


	3. Chapter 3

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 1, The Nigerian Job ~ Pt. 2**

* * *

When Blair awoke again to the sounds of beeping. Blinking as the light in the room as harsh and bright it didn't take much for her to realise she was in a hospital. The familiar smell was enough to confirm that fact. Instantly she got a load of flashbacks to when she had been in the hospital for her brother and squeezed her eyes shut, her breathing quickening and her hands shaking as they gripped the bed. "Little Miss, are you alright?"

"Hardison she is having a panic attack!" The familiar voice of Parker said, "Keep talking to her, tell her she is safe, with friends, and I'll look for a bag or something."

There was movement in the room but Blair had no clue what was going on. "Little Miss," Hardison's smooth voice said, cutting through all the sounds of the flashbacks in her brain. "Listen to me. You are safe. You are with friends. I promise you on my tickets to this year's Oscars that I will make sure nothing ever happens to you, okay." Blair slowly nodded her head, focusing on his voice and his voice alone. "Okay, I'm going to ask you to open your eyes okay. Parker is next to you so don't be surprised. Remember you're safe." Blair felt a cold hand place itself onto hers and she knew it was Parker.

"Focus on my hand, and Hardison's voice." Parker told the girl, "use them as something you can ground yourself too." She told Blair and Blair did what the girl suggested. The two sharing a smile (that Blair didn't know about) as Blair's breathing slowed down to a normal pace. Eventually she opened her eyes and looked around. Yes, they were in a hospital, but it was a different one. She was with friends. She was safe. She turned to look at Hardison and Parker and shot them a weak smile. "Thank you" she whispered and got a shrug from Parker as a response. Before any of them could respond they heard Elliot say through the vent in the wall.

"You and Blair really don't like hospitals." Causing Blair to snort as she sat up, assuming that Elliot was talking to her father who had just woken up. This assumption was confirmed when she heard the familiar voice of her father say,

"Not much... where is Blair?!"

"it's about time!" Parker spoke through the vent, informing Nate that they were in the room next door.

"Is Blair with you? Is she safe?"

"I'm here dad. I'm okay."

Parker then took over the conversation, pacing back and forth playing with the handcuffs she had been put it, but easily slipped out of. "The cops and firemen got there just as we were waking up."

"Where are we?" Nate asked.

"County hospital. Local cops, noticed the explosion." Hardison told Nate, lifting his hand for Parker as if trying to get her to un-cuff him like she had done Blair during her panic attack. Blair couldn't help but let out a small giggle at how bazar the whole situation was.

"Have we been processed?" Nate's voice came through the vent, and Blair shot a look to Hardison asking the same question and he looked at her hands. She followed his gaze to see the black ink on them.

"Hell! They even processed me!" she said before she could stop herself,

"What!" her father's voice came bounding through the vent and Blair rolled her eyes.

"That can be our second problem of the day dad. After getting us the heck out of here!"

"They faxed all our prints to the state police." Elliot's voice spoke softly, and Hardison added to his comment.

"yo, if the state run those we are screwed. The only one of us that will come up innocent is Little Miss here."

"How long?" Parker asked, the dark skinned man

"35 minutes depending on their software." Hardison replied easily, giving the blonde a smirk.

"Well they printed us, 20 minutes ago, so unless we get out of here in the next ten minutes, we all go to jail." Elliot said, and Blair knew that he was talking to her father. She could almost hear his brain wizzing as he tried to think up a plan.

"Yeah, yeah, alright. Do you think I'm going to let Blair go to jail?" Nate's voice came through the vent and Blair smiled a little. Her dad was looking out for her still.

"I can take these cops." Elliot spoke in his creepy punchy guy voice and Hardison rolled his eyes a little at the comment.

"Don't you dare!" Parker warned him, "You kill anyone you screw up my get away."

"Hold up" Hardison said, realising what the girl said, "I'm still the only one handcuffed in here, I can't even go to the bathroom. I gotta go." This caused Blair to smile, but before she could talk her dad spoke.

"Parker. Get me a phone." He said through the vents, and Blair tilted her head as she tried to understand what he was going to suggest. "What we're going to do, we're going to get out of here together."

"This was meant to be a one-time thing." Came the voice of Elliot and Blair couldn't stop herself before she said,

"Do you have a plan to get out of here?" though she couldn't see his face she knew from the silence that he did not. Nate decided to us the silence Blair created for his advantage and spoke,

" Guys, here's your problem... you all know what you can do. I know what all of you can do. So that gives me the edge, gives me the plan." There was a pause and Parker glanced from Blair to the vent.

"I don't trust these guys." She told him, and there was a silence, one Blair knew she could help with.

"P, if you don't trust my dad, or the boys, trust in me. I trust my dad, and you trust me, right?" She spoke softly, but she knew the occupants of both rooms could hear her words, unknown to her there was a smile on her dads face. He knew Blair was the one they would trust, Blair was a person everyone could trust, and for some reason Blair trusted her so by default the team would trust him.

"Of course we trust you, Mini Ford. You're innocent." Elliot spoke up.

"Parker phone!" Nate demanded, and Blair nodded her head at the girl who simply rolled her eyes and said, "This is going to suck." Before she made herself puke. Blair instantly looked away, covering her nose. She knew the smell would make her feel like puking too and her dad needed her to be focused.

When the Indian doctor came into the room, and the Janitor behind her, the first thing they did was move Blair to the seat so that Parker could have the bed. Hardison and Blair both looked on in silence as they took her temperature and moped up the sick. "Hmm." They heard the doctor say, "Nausea could mean concussion," he said simply and looked away to talk to the nurse giving Parker enough time to shoot a pointed look at Hardison. Hardison looked at Blair so raised her eyebrow as if to say 'oh hell no'. the silent discussion between the three of them was cut short as the doctor started to talk again. "if you feel any more symptums. Tell the police man right away."

"mm-hmm" Parker hummed in response, shooting the doctor a fake smile. None of them were surprised to see the police officer double check the hand-cuffs on Parkers bed before the three of them left the room.

"Well?" Blair said simply looking from the two. Parker lifted a phone and Hardison showed them the phone he got also. Realising that the phone Parker had was a smart phone and Hardison could do a lot more on it than the crappy flip phone he had got they swapped. Parker also revealing the keys she had and throwing them to the coloured man as well.

"Nate?" Parker whispered into the vent, before pushing the phone through the gap for him.

"I got it." Nate whispered as he took the phone, "so the trick is to give them what they want. They are expecting a call, right?"

It only took one moment for them all to catch on to what Nate wanted them to do, Hardison quick snaps a picture of himself on the phone before typing away on it. Blair and Parker remain quiet, letting the man work, though they can both easily hear Elliot talking on the phone in the room next to theirs. "This is Detective Lieutenant Carden with the Illinois State Police?" Elliot spoke, "We got those prints that you sent us. The problem I have is that they are sending up red flags all over the place and I've got somebody on the phone for you from the FBI down there in Washington. Can you hold for me son?" as Elliot said this Blair glanced at Hardison who pressed more buttons on the phone before the familiar sent button was heard and Hardison said,

"There we go." Before she could ask what he did her dad started to speak on the phone and she listened trying to understand the con they were doing so she wouldn't give them away.

"Yeah, Deputy Burns, this is Deputy-Director McCumber, FBI. Yes, is our man all right?" though her father had paused to listen to the man on the other side it took everything in Blair not to bash her head against the lamp, they were going to be caught because her father though that McCumber was a name. "Deputy, listen to me the man that you have inside there is ours actually. He's been deep in cover for three years." There was another pause, "that is correct," Blair couldn't help but feel the man her dad was talking too was stupid, in fact she envisioned him as the stereotypical police man who would rather eat donuts than actually bother seeing the blatant and obvious lies staring him in the face, "in fact you should be receiving a fax any moment now, confirming what I'm telling you. Most of what I've told you is classified. I need to know I can trust you. Can I?"

It's seemed that McCumber (stupid name, Blair still thought, though she was blaming her grumpiness on the lack of caffeine she had had over the last few hours) as within moments Hardison was allowed out of the room, he instantly got into character and claimed that Parker, Nate and Elliot were all suspects and Blair was an eyewitness who helped him. Blair stood by the nurse's station as Hardison carted them all out of the rooms, one by one, and toward the police car, waiting until he was taking Elliot to follow him. It didn't surprise Blair that on the way to put Elliot into the car Hardison bumped his head accidently and the man growled at him, deciding that Hardison was having too much fun she thought up a little scheme of her own as the police officers watched him talk. After the speak Hardison made, Blair turned to him "Oi, Mr." she spoke, trying to sound more innocent than ever, "You own me a ride remember."

"Oh yes, Little Miss." Hardison smile, and opened the front door for her of the police car, but Blair didn't get in.

"You also owe me 30 bucks for helping you." Hardison stared at her and Blair simply smiled, she knew he had to play good cop and time was running out so he had no other choice but t hand her the cash. Once it was in her hand she smiled and got into the car, hearing Elliot mutter, "I like you Mini Ford" and Parker hum in agreement. Hardison simply gave her a look before he hopped into the car too and they drove off. Ahh, she was staring to like this new adventurous lifestyle.

Hardison drove them to a random building block Blair had never been too, but when they got out of the car she instantly knew the building was a good building block. None of them spoke as they got the elevator up to the loft, where they all followed Hardison inside, the man spoke loudly as he lead them inside, "5 first class tickets to anywhere but here, coming up!" he informed them. They all however had a different question, the question of where the hell were they? Thankfully Parker decided to ask the question they were all thinking;

"Whose place is this?"

"It's mine," was the response Hardison gave, and Blair raised her eyebrows impressed. He had a great eye, the apartment looked great. Somewhere she could really be comfortable staying in for a bit. It seemed Hardison could read Blair's thoughts as he simply smiled at her, "No thinking about crashing here, there is a coffee machine in the kitchen." He told her and she grinned.

"I love you!" Blair called as she skipped into the kitchen to make herself a large cup of coffee. She could hear the conversation slightly behind her as the machine whirred, it was a lot of threatening Dubenich and telling Parker was weird because the girl's priorities were the money. Once she had a mug and walked back into the main room where the group where standing, she managed to catch the end of what Hardison was saying.

"Check out what my little web crawlers coughed up." Blair could see that on the monitors the man was working on and she moved closer to watch the video he had pulled up onto one of them. A man who was going grey wearing ridiculous sunglasses was talking and it was clear this was from the company they had stolen the plans for in the first place.

"We've lost research that we've been working on for over five years," the man said in the video, causing Blair to frown, hadn't Dubenich tell her and her father he had been researching for five years? Something smelt fishy here. "Our servers have been sabotaged, now we're going to pursue these perpetrators to the full extent of the law and with all the resources we have at our disposal." The man concluded.

"Yikes..." Was all Blair said as she took a sip from her coffee, she had never had the law after her before. This trip to see her father had really been a lot of firsts for her, she thought fondly as she sipped on the coffee.

"It could be a cover story," her father suggested, but Hardison shook his head as he typed away on the keyboard.

"Here's a log of last night's rip. Internal timestamps on the project..." he said bring them up, so they all could see, "2003, 2004, they're way, way down in the code."

"I'm guessing there is no reason to fake something like that." Blair commented and Hardison nodded his head in agreement.

"That's right Little Miss, there is no reason for someone to do that."

"So we didn't steal the plans back?" Elliot said, as they all finally came to that conclusion.

"No. we were just stealing them." Parker commented as she leant against the post, playing with Blair's hair.

"Why would Dubenich lie to us?" Hardison asked, and they all looked at Nate for the answer. One he had already come to a long time ago, Blair assumed. He probably figured it out when he was laughing like a mad man in the abandoned air thing before it exploded.

"He lied, 'cause you're thieves." Nate started, "if he hired you for a straight up crime, you'd know he was a bad guy like you, you'd be suspicious. This way you just saw another citizen in over his head and that is why you didn't see the double cross coming

"Why didn't you see it coming dad?" Blair asked, genuinely curious how her dad didn't even think that a thing.

"Because I'm not a thief." Was the instant replay and Blair rolled her eyes at his antics.

"You know what, maybe that was the problem. If you –" before Elliot could finish his sentce Hardison was handing him a bit of paper, Blair however kept an eye on her dad. He was quiet, and that worried her a little.

"I bought tickets to London, Rome, Paris and Sao Paulo all matching the IDs that you gave me"

Blair took the paper from him, and looked up in surprise, "You're running?"

"Yes, mini Ford. You got a better idea in that brain of yours?" Elliot said, crossing his arms.

"Your running," Nate repeated the words, looking at Blair with a smile, "oh you are brilliant!" he told her and she smiled a little confused.

"Thank you, but how am I brilliant?" she asked, but she was blanked as her dad turned back to Hardison's screens.

"Now that was a high-risk play. You got your Balls tied to the stock prince like a cinder block, shareholder meeting coming up." He told the picture before looking at the odd group behind him, noting the realisation coming across Blair's face. She was his daughter after all.

"We cant let him get away with this." She whispered and her father nodded his head once.

"You want to run a game on this guy?" Elliot said, looking from father to daughter to father again, "You two?"

"Yeah, I mean, how do you think I got most of my stolen merchandise back?" Nate asked simply looking at them all, before pointing to the picture on the screen, "I mean, this guy he's greedy, he thinks he's smart, he is the best kind of mark."

"He does think he got rid of us" Parker pointed out, putting in such a way as if it was a suggestion. She was considering what Nate said.

"Element of surprise." Hardison added.

"What's in it for me?" Elliot asked, it seemed he was the only one who wasn't completely convinced.

"Payback, and if it goes right a lot of money." Nate told him honestly, causing Parker to step forward and asked the same question, "A lot of money, and if it goes right, Payback." Was her father's response.

"Hardison?" Blair asked, knowing he would be next to asked the question, and the man smiled at her and put his arm round her shoulders,

"Little Miss, my plan was to send him a thousand odd porno magazines to his office, but yeah man, lets kick him up."

Elliot was the one to look at Nate and ask, "What's in it for you?" but the man didn't reply, in fact all he did was take Blair's coffee mug from her and move to the kitchen, moving the liquid into a to go cup. Blair decided to answer the question for her father.

"He used Sam to get dad to do the job." She explained, the team all looked surprised as the normal cheerful girl they had been used two had turned cold and dark and broken all of a sudden. Before Hardison could do anything more than squeeze the girls shoulders comfortingly Nate had put the lid on the cup and announced, "All right. Let's go get Sophie." Blair was the first to follow him, taking her cup and giving her dads hand a small squeeze, something he happily returned as he lead the odd group from the apartment. All of them ignoring Elliot's outburst of

"What the hell's a Sophie?"

A Sophie, meant the one and only Sophie Devereaux a name infamous to Blair who was simply happy to put a name to the face she had heard shouted so many times. Blair wasn't stupid, she knew Sophie was to be the team's grifter but as much as she loved her dad this woman's acting was appalling. "She is very awful" Hardison said from next to her and Blair hummed in agreement as she tried to look like she was enjoying herself.

"Is she injured? In the head?" Parker whispered from the other side of Hardison. From next to Blair Elliot spoke up, talking to her father who seemed to be the only one enjoying herself.

"Seriously man, this is the worst actress I've ever seen"

"This is not her stage." Was the cryptic message Nate gave them and Blair slumped back in her seat, this was going to be a long show.

When the show ended, which was 2 hours later, Elliot, Blair, Parker and Hardison were the first ones to all but run out of the theatre, knowing Nate wanted to talk to Sophie after the show so they were all waiting outside the car, well no, they were all arguing as they waiting for the arrival of the star of the show. "No. No, I vote no!" Elliot said in a tone that meant this was final, causing Blair to raise her eyes from the hood of the car which she was seated on.

"Parker is right," Nate explained, "Dubenich knows us, including B, we need a fresh face." He said before turning round and clapping as Sophie neared them, "I thought you were great." He told her,

"My only fan." Was the females voice, all of them hearing the English accent, before her tone lowered and she and Nate all but whispered to each other.

"They are flirting aren't they?" Blair asked, Hardison who was next to her, who nodded with a grin causing Blair to groan and lean her head on Parkers shoulder. It wasn't that she didn't want her dad to have someone, it was just she knew he was still infatuated with her mother. If the two had a clean split then she would be pushing for this. She didn't want her dad to hurt someone because his feelings, though he refused to admit he had them, were still all over the place in the romance department. She felt a hand pat her head and raised it to see her dad and Sophie walking towards them, her dad saying "Lets break the law, just one more time." Causing Blair to roll her eyes and slide off the hood.

* * *

 **FYI. I have personally never had a panic attack so i hope i havent offended anyone with my portrayal of it. my friends had one and she said she uses voices and physical things (like hands or objects) to ground her it helps, so i went off that.**

 **tell me your thoughts,**

 **Love**

 **Sazzacubz 13 xx**

 ***This is on wattpad too***


	4. Chapter 4

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 1, The Nigerian Job ~ Pt. 3**

* * *

They went back to Hardison's loft, it had become their unofficial spot for this con, Blair had found herself one of Hardison's jumpers and was curled up with it engulfing her on the couch next to Parker watching as Hardison showed them pictures of Dubenich on the TV screen, Sophie was taking notes and her dad was pacing behind them. Elliot stepped over the legs of Hardison and Parker and sat himself down between Sophie and Blair, handing the teenager a cup of coffee, "here you go kiddo,", before he settled the bowl of popcorn in his lap Parker instantly leaning over the cocooned teenager to grab a handful, listening to Hardison talking, "Victor Dubenich, executive vice-president in charge of new technology development over at Bering Aerospace. Rich daddy, trust fund, Yale MBA. Blah, Blah, Blah" he finished with a wave of his hand as he too munched on the popcorn Elliot had brought over much to the dismay of the cowboy.

"Victor? Now when was the last time you met a Victor?" Nate asked without meaning as he paced behind the couch.

"Prom." Blair muttered though she heard her dad falter a little before he started walking again causing her to smirk.

"Vietnam. Town called Banho Zay" Elliot answered Nate.

"Chinese Border?" Sophie asked leaning back to look at Elliot in amazement, though her comment caused the cowboy to look at her amazed.

"That is an odd thing for you to know."

"That's an odd place for you to be." Sophie replied and Blair looked at Hardison, knowing the man would be able to read what she was thinking. Did this woman constantly flirt? The coloured man smirked at the girl before continuing with his speech.

"Now Bering is in charge of a lot of big fat government contracts," with two taps the picture of Dubenich's rival popped up on the screen. "Some Department of Defense research, very classified stuff."

"Can we use that?" Parker asked as she popped popcorn into her mouth.

"No, I don't think so" Hardison told the blonde, "Dubenich is in charge of their commercial airline business."

"I know when you sent Dubenich his designs you weren't supposed to make any copies" Nate started, causing a smile to creep onto Blair's face at the subtle 'but' that hung in the air.

"No, I promise. That would be very wrong" Hardison said, sarcasm dripping from his words causing the rest of them to smile as Nate rolled his eyes.

"Show us your copies." Nate said simply, as Hardison clicked a few buttons and the plans went up onto his tv screen.

"It's an airplane" Elliot said, though Blair leant forward in awe and spoke without thinking.

"It's not just an Airplane. It's a short alt domestic airliner, yeah, usually one hour flights. It's the fastest growing segment of the industry, very fuel efficient. High tech. oh amazing carbon nose, look it's got the titanium wrap!" she paused to breath in her excitement, and noticed everyone was looking at her. "What? You'd be surprised what you pick up reading his case files," she said with a nod of her head backwards towards her father.

"You pick up on a lot of stuff" Hardison said carefully looking at the girl in awe.

"I remember everything I read." Blair explained with a shrug before sipping her coffee again.

"Check this out." Hardison said after a moment, "Now Dubenich and Pierson they were head to head for five years trying to grab the lead in an industry that's worth like eleventy-billion dollars."

"Eleventy-billion?" Blair muttered in a teasing tone, causing her to get a look from Hardison and a laugh from Elliot.

"So Pierson got there first, Dubenich took a short cut." Parker explained getting them back on track.

"So he's got a rival." Nate said from behind them, thinking as he paced, "he's got a rival that pisses him off so much he hired us to steal his designs. Oh, this is good."

Blair looked at Sophie who was looking at her father with a knowing look, as she said, "what are you thinking, Nate?"

"I'm thinking Nigerians. Yeah, Nigerians will do nicely" he said cryptically before wandering off, probably to get a drink of alcohol, causing Blair to sigh and get to her feet, clambering over the couch.

"Don't touch the alcohol dad!" she shouted following the direction he had gone, but not missing the comment from Sophie.

"Well, he hasn't changed a bit, plus he had a mini him in female form. Though that one is addicted to caffeine not alcohol"

Blair was coming to think that Hardison's couch was her second home, seeing as her father refused to let her be anywhere near the con. Hardison had put the earpieces onto a loud speaker so they could hear what was being said easily and Blair frowned when she heard the familiar voice of Dubenich come through those speakers. "My..." the man stuttered, though Sophie stepped up next in a South African accent that wasn't that bad.

"Mr. Dubenich, Anna Gunschtot, African Commercial Transport and Trade Initiative." Sophie said, and Blair glanced over at Hardison and her dad waiting for the comment that she knew was to come.

"Here comes the mountain of suck," Hardison said causing Blair to laugh, before going back to her phone. She wasn't paying attention as really she didn't have anything to do, "she's not awful" Hardison said after a while, causing Blair to glance over half interested.

"This is her stage," Nate said, almost admiringly causing Blair to raise an eyebrow but she kept her thoughts to herself, "Sophie Deveraux is the finest actress you've ever seen..." he paused and glanced over at Blair who gave him a sceptical look. Had her father been too the same play that they had been too when they first saw Sophie, "when she is breaking the law." He explained causing Hardison and Blair to laugh, as Dubenich's voice came through the speaker,

"Keep graft and stealing manageable in Africa, good luck but I don't think I can help..." it seemed Sophie was still trying to get him on board,

"You need to get him out of the office," Blair muttered, surprised that a few moments later Sophie suggested they both go outside, causing Blair to smirk feeling rather proud of herself.

"Okay, and now." Nate told Hardison, patting his shoulder sending Blair a proud smile, before focusing back on Hardison who was typing on his computer.

"It should be crashing, now." Hardison told them, and almost on que they heard Parkers voice over the speakers,

"Hello IT." She said, and paused before saying, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Did you try turning it on and off again?"

"That's a computer thing. I told her to say that." Hardison told Blair and Nate in an almost proud voice, causing Blair to let out a giggle.

"Well done," Nate said simply, shooting Blair a look as he patted Hardison on the shoulder.

"We've got someone on your floor already," Parker told the secretary, and moments later Elliot's voice came through the speakers imitating what he thought a nerdy voice was,

"Somebody called IT?"

Blair watched as Hardison typed on the computer so Elliot's voice was quieter so they could hear what Sophie and Dubenich were saying. "I represent a group of investors who are looking to start an airline for short tour flights in Africa"

"Of Johannesburg?" Dubenich's voice asked and Blair hissed air through her teeth, he was testing Sophie, it seemed Nate knew this too as he calmly told her

"Okay, he's testing you. You want Bloemfontein."

"Keep away from the hubs," Sophie's voice spoke, "Revitalize the regional airports. In South Africa, Bloemfontein for example. But really, it's Nigeria we're focused on."

"Perfect," Nate muttered and Blair could imagine how proud Sophie was, though before she could voice that Dubenich was walking again,

"Most of their airport runways are a mess"

"I believe new airplanes will make people more comfortable while we renew old runways."

"Uh huh. I don't recall saying anything about new airplanes."

"Victor." Sophie said, causing Blair to frown, that name sounded weird off Sophie's lips, "but you and your chief engineer are scheduled to speak at your shareholders meeting."

"I think you know more about my business than I do."

"I've done my homework." Sophie said, clearly flirting causing both Hardison and Blair to shudder, "I find you fascinating."

Blair decided to listen into Elliot's speech though a lot of it was flirting with the secretary which was just as puke worthy.

"Now, shouldn't I be playing the computer guy?" Hardison asked the two Fords in the room, and Blair looked at him,

"if you played him, who would be our actual computer guy?" she asked, and this seemed to shut Hardison up until Elliot starting talking about dressing up like a Klingon and going to conventions.

"Oh, hold up man. That is so not cool!" Hardison all but shouted at Elliot down the coms, "we are gonna have a strong talk when you get back!" though Nate quickly hushed him as Dubenich and Sophie started to talk about important stuffs.

"Anna." Sophie told Dubenich

"Anna, thank you. How's this? If we announce a new product then you can order as many as your heart desires."

"Okay, you know what to do." Nate told Sophie, "Hit him."

"We'd also like to build the planes." Sophie's voice rang out through the loft, "More jobs. Build them in Africa, fly them in Africa, and sell the rest around the world."

"Well, that's very ambitious. You have the manufacturing facilities to do all that?" Dubenich asked,

"Ah! We can easily raise the money to build the facilities is e know for certain we're going to get the contracts."

"Atta girl!" Hardison told her, and Blair got up from the couch to make herself yet another cup of coffee missing what was said but hearing Hardison say, "it was a nice try man."

"Wait for it." She heard her father say and rolled her eyes, he really believed in this Sophie didn't he.

"I'll take it to Pierson." Sophie said, and Blair smile. Of course, the rival always a card that worked.

"I'm aware that you're manimpulating me, Anna." Dubenich spoke

"Well I should hope so. Hundreds of millions of dollars in new contracts, a lot of good press, all at your door."

"Okay, I give up, I'll take the meeting." Dubenich told her and Blair could see the grin on her dads face, even though she could only see the back of it from the kitchen.

Blair was sitting cross legged on her bed that evening when Sophie came looking for her, like she knew she would. "Blair? Can I talk to you for a moment?" Sophie said, as she popped her head around the door, Blair simply smiled.

"Sure, come in." she told the woman and she shuffled along so Sophie could sit next to her on the bed.

"I thought I would introduce myself to you properly, I'm sure my name has been heard before" Sophie started and Blair snorted, that was an understatement.

"Yeah, your name has cropped up in my life before I met you." Blair told the woman honestly, "but I think you want me to not judge you based on that, am I right?"

"You are so like your father, but with your mother's compassion." Sophie told her, and tucked a loose strand of hair from the girl's face, "yes, that is what I would like. I want you to make up your own opinion of me, and maybe we can be friends one day."

"I'd like that." Blair whispered, smiling at the woman. It had been a long time since she had had a mother like figure in her life that actually cared for her, after the divorced her mother focused on her work and seemed to forget Blair lived in the house with her.

"If you ever need to talk, woman to woman come find me. I'm happy to talk no matter what." Sophie told the girl, Blair paused before she pulled the woman into a hug. Sophie would never know how much those words meant to her, she loved her father but Blair couldn't talk to him about feelings and other girly stuff. Sophie seemed surprised but hugged the girl back with a smile. When they pulled apart Blair got to her feet,

"I'm going to make myself a coffee," she told the woman who laughed but nodded, "But Sophie, thank you." She told her honestly, before walking from the room. As she climbed down the stairs she heard Elliot and her Father's conversation. Blair was small, and people often overlooked her so she could hear a lot of conversations people didn't want to be over heard.

"You look better than when we started," Elliot told Nate as he lined up his shot.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. And that bothers you, huh?"

"I uh, well this isn't supposed to feel -" her father said, trying to described how he felt with a wave of his hand.

"Good?" Elliot suggested, "it's not that hard to figure out. Dubenich screwed you. He cheated by stealing from that other company and your good guy brain sees him as the bad guy. You don't need to worry, we aren't corrupting Blair."

"Do you want to take your shot?" Nate asked, glancing at the table and back to Elliot.

"Listen, I'm sorry about your other kid. That's why you keep Blair so close."

"You don't know anything about us."

"Everybody knows." Elliot told him, "A guy like you goes off the street a lot of people notice. It was a bad story too. How did they justify that, huh? The insurance company just not paying for his treatment?"

Blair's hand tightened around the staircase she was sitting on as she remembered that horrible day, she stood next to her dad all night long while Sam lay in that hospital bed.

"They claimed it was experimental." Nate told Elliot, and Blair's head dropped.

"You should have kept one of those Monets you found. You fence that –"

"Elliot, you and I are not friends." Nate interrupted him, and Blair looked up as she felt a hand on her head and smiled when she saw Sophie walking down the stairs.

"I'd head to bed now, hun." She told Blair who glanced at Nate, and Elliot, both of whom had turned to look in their direction. Blair quickly turned away and walked back up the stairs, ignoring the concerned glanced she was getting from the boys downstairs.

Blair didn't know what was said between the adults after she had left for bed, but for some unknown reason she was allowed to sit with them outside the building they were using. Hardison had placed a coffee and a piece of chocolate cake in front of the girl who was ignoring the looks her father was giving her. Hardison nudged Nate who turned just in time to see Dubenich's car pull in front of the building they were using. "Sophie, he's on-site."

"What? No, I'm not ready." Blair heard the woman say in her ear, Hardison had given her, her own personal ear piece that morning, making her apart of the team.

"If you don't meet him right now in the lobby he's going to go to the building directory and look for the office number." Nate said, and Blair pointed her fork at him

"We are not in the building directory." She pointed out to them all.

"And why aren't we in the directory?" Elliot demanded in their ears.

"I don't know, maybe because they're fake offices," Hardison told him, taking a bite from the cake causing Blair to smile at him.

"The Elevator isn't working!" Sophie told them and Nate sighed and got to his feet,

"All right I'll distract him. Parker you got ten seconds to get Sophie to the lobby." Nate told them and Blair and Hardison watched as he took out a retractable baton from inside his coat. Neither of them were surprised when he started to smash windows from the cars parked in front of the building causing the alarms to go off. People start to run from the building and Nate makes his way back to the table where Hardison and Blair where having a fork fight over the last bit of cake. It seemed his daughter was not missing out completely on her childhood being with them, seeing as Hardison was like a big kid. As he settled Sophie started to talk again, telling them that she had been successful in getting to Dubenich before he found out they were a fraud. Triumphantly stuffing the last bit of cake into her mouth Blair tuned back into the conversation that was happening in her head.

"On thing. The gentleman bringing you this opportunity to work with their government, they'll, um, expect some, um, compensation. Not a bribe, of course." Sophie told Dubenich.

"a finder's fee."

"Exactly."

"I thought your job was to eliminate graft and stealing."

"No. my job is to keep it manageable"

"Her flirting with her is creepy" Blair whispered to the men at the table with her, both of whom nodded in agreement as Parker sat down on the other side of Blair.

"Nice job on the zip line" Nate told her, and she grinned.

"I totally thought she was going to break a leg. No bad for a first time." Parker told them as she put her feet up on the table.

"So what do you think?" they all heard Dubenich say on the com

"She's closing it up" Nate told them with a smile, though that didn't cause Nate to really smile until he heard Dubenich say, "Oh, I think we can work something out."

Blair knew that it was going to be a long day the next day, but as she put papers into boxes that evening the sudden realisation of what they were attempting to do and how much shit they would be in if they got caught dawned on her. She felt the couch dip next to her and didn't bother to look up when she saw the glass of cotch being placed down on the coffee table. "You don't need to do this, you can back out now." Her dad spoke quietly as he watched her work, Blair paused as he said this. He wanted her to go, he wanted her to be safe, but part of her also though he just didn't want her anymore. He had a new dysfunctional thing happening here and Blair really didn't fit in with it.

"Ohh." Was all she could say as she stopped working.

"It's not that I don't want you here." Nate said instantly, realising how his words must have sounded to her, "but I can phone your mother and say you're going back to her." Blair shook her head. No she wasn't going back to an empty house every night and a shitty life, she would stick to her father, she had already gotten Hardison to make the legal documentation up so her father was her guardian not her mother.

"I'm just nervous for tomorrow," Blair told her dad after a moment's silence, "I don't want any of you to get caught. I don't want to lose you." She told him, and her dad shot her a smile before pulling her in for a hug.

"I just got you back into my life munchkin, I refuse to let you go now" he told her and Blair smiled, nodding relishing the familiar comfort of her fathers hugs.

The next day was manic but also painfully slow, for Blair anyway, there was little she really could do (as her father wanted her out of the way) so she had set up at a table in a café opposite where the shareholders banquet was being held outside, posing as a student doing a long essay so her sitting there all day didn't look weird. She had her glasses on, something Hardison instantly teased her for when she put them on, though she did remind him she was using the money he gave her when he posed as FBI to pay for her coffee intake that day so it shut him up rather fast. Her glasses made it easier for her to spot when Dubenich made his entrance to the meeting, and the moment she saw his fat body she told the team. "Dubenich is present and talking the talk. When you are ready." She went back to her computer where she was in fact writing up an essay for school, her dad had said if she wanted to stay with him he was happy to have her home-schooled if she did the work, so here she was doing the work. When she glanced up about 15 minutes later, to thank the cute boy who had come out to give her the coffee she had ordered she saw Sophie and the Nigerians behind her. This was confirmed when she heard Sophie's voice in her ear,

"Well, aren't you the cat that ate the canary?" Blair took a sip of her coffee and watched as Sophie lead the Nigerians into the building following behind Dubenich. She knew her job was to just to make sure everything went smoothly, and she couldn't help but smirk when lots of FBI came hurtling towards the building, a familiar black car amongst them. Closing her laptop, and leaving the cute coffee boy a rather large tip (and her phone number but her dad didn't need to know that) and she made her way towards the familiar car, clicking the button on the second set of keys she had unlocking it. She slipped into the driver's seat and pulled away, knowing she had to move closer to the entrance, where she saw the team walking towards her, all of them holding boxes.

"Need a lift?" Blair asked, her dad who smiled at her as they all slipped into the car before she drove off.

Blair's respect for her father increased tenfold when she heard he went to Pierson to give him back his stolen plans. Her dad may be a good guy but Blair wanted to rub it into Dubenich he got out witted, and was leaning on a concrete block in a park her phone to her ear. "Yeah?" The familiar voice of Dubenich said, causing Blair to smirk and start to walk through the park towards where the team were gonna meet her father,

"You know, you should have just paid them."

"I found the transmitter!" Dubenich told her, and she laughed

"You mean, you found the transmitter with the blinking light. Come on Victor my dad knew you were smart, it wouldn't have been fun if you didn't figure out some of it."

"I am Victor Dubenich, I am going to beat this!" He told her and she rolled her eyes. These high corporate guys were really annoying.

"You seem to be forgetting about the bribe." Blair told him.

"Who cares?" Dubenich told her, "you're just a little girl, you can prove anything." Just then Blair heard the FBI say something about money and she could help but laugh, though she was cut short as her father stepped out in front of her giving her a knowing look, holding his hand out for her to pass the phone to him. She did, but she grumbled as she did.

"You will find that doesn't account for all of it." Nate told Dubenich as he put the phone to his ear, holding his arm out for Blair to hold. "Sophie kept a little to buy a truly impressive number of shoes. See if a company's stock price falls ten, fifteen percent in one day and you see it coming, you sell short, you make a lot of money. If it's going to fall thirty percent you can make shattering amounts of money." Her father told the man on the phone, "We didn't need the FBI to show up and take you to jail, we just needed them to show up and take boxes out of your office, all day long in front of TV cameras, scaring your investors."

"Him going to jail is simply a bonus," Blair said, though she knew Dubenich couldn't hear her.

"I wouldn't say anything about us to the Feds. Next time we won't be so nice." Nate said before he hung up, and he glanced at Blair, "You shouldn't have done that."

"No," Blair said smiling mischievously, "but you have to admit you had a little fun rubbing it in." this comment caused Nate to laugh as they reached the rest of their group. Hardison immediately passes the two an envelope and Blair shoots her father a weird look, she didn't expect to be paid.

"Job well –"Nate paused as he read the sum on the check he was given, "Woah..."

"There was an overlap in the London stock market. Valuation carried over to NASDAQ and..." Hardison seemed to realise the looks he was getting, none of them really cared, "I'm just very good at what I do"

"This is the score. THE score" Parker whispered holding the check to her chest.

"Age of the geek, baby!" Hardison joked causing Blair to laugh.

"Somebody kiss this man so I don't have too" was Elliot's response to reading the check.

"So we're out, huh? I mean we're out, this is retirement money. This is so legit and buy an island money" Hardison said, Blair could hear the sadness in his voice and she frowned.

"Uh, yeah." Nate said, having just realised that himself, "it was a pleasure working with you."

"Yeah. One show only. No encores." Elliot said half-heartedly repeating the words he told them after their first job.

"I already forgot all your names." Parker did the same, looking around at them. With that Nate grabbed Blair's arm and they walked away. Though Blair glanced at her dad and smirked as they walked away,

"Hardison." She said, to her dad who gave her a confused look, so she repeated herself, "Hardison."

Almost seconds after she said this the man's voice came from behind them, "You know I never had that cool a time on a job."

"It was a walkway." Nate said, not stopping his walking but shooting Blair a look at how she knew Hardison was going to pop up. Blair simply smirked and looked ahead as they walked.

"And I got focus issues, brother kept me right on." Hardison said ignoring Nate's comment.

"Parker," Blair said to her dad could hear, as the blonde popped up.

"I'm really got at one thing, only one thing that's it, but you, you know other things and-and I can't stop doing my one thing, can't retire..." she said

"Elliot." Blair tilted her head, and was not disappointed when she heard his voice.

"You want to know what I think?" the man asked,

"Not really," Nate sighed,

"How long until you fall apart again?"

"Oh, I'm touched."

"Well a guy like you can't be out of the game, that's why you were a wreck, you need the chase." Before her father could talk Blair stopped walking and smiled at someone on the bench. Nate followed the girl's eye line and was surprised to see Sophie sitting there.

"And Sophie." Blair whispered as the woman walked over to Nate.

"You pick the jobs." She told Nate.

"My job is helping people. I help find bad guys." Nate grumbled.

"Then go find some bad guys." Blair suggested with a shrug causing her dad to look at her. Groaning she rolled her eyes. "Bad guys have money."

"Black king, White Knight." Was all Sophie needed to say and Blair knew her dad was on board. This was the start of something, and Blair was simply happy to be a part of it.

* * *

 **thats the end of episode one! ahhhh episode 2 is on its way!**

 **tell me your thoughts,**

 **Love**

 **Sazzacubz 13 xx**

 ***This is on wattpad too***


	5. Chapter 5

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 2, The Homecoming Job ~ Pt. 1**

* * *

It had been a few months since the group had seen one another. Blair was now living with her father permanently and 100% legally, much to her delight. Her mother, on the other hand, simply wasn't talking to her because she had chosen her father over her mother. Blair quickly found out that home schooling and herself got on really well and she was ahead in almost all of her classes, without any help from Hardison to get her there. In fact her dad had told her he was taking her somewhere as a treat for her good work. So when they pulled up in front of a hospital she just knew he had a case in mind. That was her treat. Blair wasn't sure what to expect from their client but the cute soldier, named Robert Perri, in the wheelchair was not it at all, but she wasn't complaining about it. She remained silent as he and her father talked, blushing a little when she felt his gaze on her now and then, only really going into 'work' mode when he showed them a video on his laptop. The video showed Robert filming himself in Iraq, "All right sweetheart," video Robert said with a grin on his face, "we are near Najaf, I'm not allowed to say exactly where," just as he was coming to the end of the sentence another soldier came into fame, "Hey Dwight, say hello to Jenny."

"He's cheating on you!" the man called Dwight said with a cheeky grin.

"Nice."

"With a camel. A drunk, slutty camel." Dwight said until Robert pushed him out of frame with a laugh,

"Alright, it was one time, okay, and the camel's been texting me but it's over. I promise" he teased, he looked like he was about to say something else when alarms went off.

"Hello, P.S.D." Dwight said as the camera turned to show a truck being loaded by a bunch of soldiers in black uniforms.

"Those guys," Roberts said turning the camera back to face her, "private contractors. They make several hundred bucks a day. I make seven!"

"Yeah, but you know what they gotta do? They gotta..." before Dwight could answer gunfire rings out and Dwight is seen getting hit several times in the chest.

"Shots fired. Shots fired. Go, go! Go red!" an unknown man called before the camera and Robert fall to the ground and the screen of the laptop went static. Blair pulled a face and pushed her dads hovering hand away from the enter button so she didn't have re-watch the film again.

"Is Jenny your Fiancée?" Nate asked, he hadn't been oblivious to the looks the boy had been shooting Blair, but Blair was only 18, far too young for a boyfriend in his mind.

"Well, she was but..." the man in the wheelchair trailed off and instantly they both knew the engagement was no longer a thing.

"I'm sorry." Blair told him softly shooting him a small smile which he returned with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm not mad, it happens." He told her before turning to look at her dad, "Look I don't want charity."

"I can promise you, we are not Charity." Nate said instantly, and Blair nodded her head in agreement. They weren't a charity they just helped those get what they needed from those who thought they would get away with picking on the weak. It was like they were Robin Hood and his merry men, but a modern day version, who obviously dressed better.

"I just want my rehab." The man told them, "you know if I'm gonna work, and I want to work, Dr. LeRoque says I need another year and a half of hard-core rehab, maybe two more surgeries. Castleman shot me up. I just want them to pay my bills, no more, no less." Blair raised her eyebrows at the simplicity of the man's request. He just wanted to get better, and those who injured him to help him do that. Her eyes met the mans and she smiled at him in understanding, noting the blush on his cheeks as they made eye contact and deciding to make a mental note to leave her number with him. He was cute and single, so why not?

"The army investigation determined, what? That you hit by insurgents?" Nate asked after a moment and Robert quickly looked away from Blair to look Nate in the eye,

"Yeah, that's because Castleman refused to cooperate in the investigation" the soldier told him almost angrily.

"And they can do that?" Blair asked, it sounded like something that they shouldn't be able to do.

"There is nothing stopping them." Robert told Blair, "they are cowboys, they go off all the time, boom, boom, boom. I just want them to do right by me." Glancing behind him, he quickly pulled his flash drive from the computer and put it into Blair's hand, as a Doctor walked over to them.

"Pardon me, Mr, uh?" she asked, looking from Nate (who had stood up to greet her) to Blair who remained seated her hand still in Roberts, though neither of them seem to be complaining about it.

"Oh, Nathan Ford, and this is Blair Ford, My daughter." The last bit seemed to be more of a warning to Robert, who tried to move his hand but Blair stopped him causing the solider to smile.

"Can I talk to you outside?" the doctor asked Nate.

"They are cool Doc, I found them online." Robert told her.

"Yes, that never goes badly" the doctor said before pointing at Nate, "You with me." Nate sighed and moved, turning to look at Blair,

"Meet me in 5 minutes." He said before they moved away, leaving Blair and Robert.

"You know when I called your dad, I didn't expect you." The boy told Blair causing her to laugh, she should have expected that. No one would expect an 18 year old to be into the thief business.

"Would you believe me if I said this was a treat for me?" Blair said, causing the boy to laugh and shake his head.

"How does a girl as pretty and funny as you, get into a line of work like this one?" he asked, Blair could feel the heat in her cheeks but ignored it and shrugged.

"My dad really, that and I was in the right place at the right time." She said honestly, as that was the reason she was in this 'line of work' as Robert had said. She glanced at the clock and sighed, Robert followed her gaze and frowned.

"I guess you need to go"

"My dad said five minutes."

"Would it be too forward of me to ask for your number?" Robert asked, causing Blair to simply shake her head as she handed him a bit of paper with her number already on it before kissing his cheek and walking out a smile stretched out from cheek to cheek on her face.

Her dad and the Doctor where easy to spot and she sidled up to them just as her dad was saying, "we are not a scam. We are here to help."

"People don't just show up to help. That's not the way the world works." With that the Doctor walked away, leaving Nate and Blair outside the hospital.

"Have you got the pen drive?"

"Yep"

"Did you give him your number?"

"Oh, yeah," Blair smiled and Nate rolled his eyes, his daughter was truly a mix of him and his ex-wife and that fact scared him more than he was willing to admit. "Call them all, I'll drop you off outside the building. I need to pick something up." Nate told her before walking off causing Blair to roll her eyes before unlocking her phone and putting it to her ear.

Leverage Headquarters was something Hardison and Blair had been working hard on since the moment the group spilt up once again (after agreeing they were a team now). Blair lifted her head from the leather couch she had got Hardison to put in the 'waiting area' as Parker, Sophie and Elliot walked into the office of their new cover story. "I don't get it" Elliot familiar voice spoke as he read the sign that said; 'Leverage Consulting & Associates'.

"Guys!" Blair screamed getting up from the couch and rushing over to them, jumping on Elliot first as she knew he could handle her pounce. The cowboy laughed and hugged the girl as she squealed,

"Mini Ford, it's good to see you." He told her as he let go and she grinned before giving Sophie a hug,

"Blair, you look as beautiful as ever" Sophie told the girl as she too hugged the girl, however when she let got she looking her over with a concerned eye before Blair turned to Parker.

"P!"

"B!" Parker said holding her arms open and the two hugged, as Parker let her go she asked the question all three where thinking, "What is this place?"

Right on que Hardison walked around the corner, holding three file folders in his arms, "this is our new cover story. Welcome to Leverage Consulting and Associates, a family run business founded in 1913 by the great Harland Leverage the Third."

"Meet my great great great something grandpa" Blair said with a grin as she pointed to a painting of an old grumpy man who greatly resembled her father. The group looked at the painting and let out a laugh.

"I'm sorry," Sophie said as she laughed, "Nate is going to kill you both."

"Did you paint that?" Elliot asked Hardison who simply shrugged and smiled

"I'm gifted." He told them, before handing them all their file, "No Leverage Consulting Inc. is squeaky clean, all corporate taxes on record as being paid for the last ninety years. All your identities state you as partners, info in those files, your payroll taxes are paid, you guys have pensions plans and dental," he pointed to a spare room Blair was sick of seeing as she had filled it up, "those are employment records, case files and company newsletters." Hardison turned and walked further into the office, Blair laughed as she heard Parker say,

"In 1998 I won the sack race at the 4th of July picnic. Cool."

"Aww, Mini Ford, I was present at your birth."

"I know, _Uncle Elliot_." She replied her voice dripping with sarcasm, getting the grimace from him, she suppressed a smile as she looked back at Hardison who continue talking.

"Now these, these are your offices." Hardison said, pointing to the doors in front of them, one for each of them, "Now you can bring something like a photo, you know what, a Plant! I am a big supporter of dandelions."

"Hardison, I can't believe you spent your share of the cash on all of this!" Sophie exclaimed, looking around though Hardison gave her an odd look,

"Me? No, hell no! Blair paid for all of this," Hardison explained and all eyes turned to look at Blair who shrugged as if it meant nothing. "Because Nate gave most of his away"

"Whoa! What do you mean he gave it away?" Elliot asked in shock, it was clear he was still trying to wrap his mind around Blair spending so much money on a cover for them.

"He gave most of his money to a children's hospital" Blair explained and all of them nodded in understanding.

"But this however, is my masterpiece," Hardison said, opening the double doors to reveal the conference room. Blair smiled finally getting to see the room Hardison refused to let her see until now. There was a long table with white chairs around them. The main feature was the wall dedicated to the large TV screens on it.

"Nice..." Sophie said as the group looked at the room.

"Long version or the short version?" Hardison asked

"Short."

"Short version"

"Shortest" was the instant response from the adult trio as they all walked into the room, Hardison shot Blair a look and she shrugged seeing the hurt look flash across his face before he pressed the button on some remote in his hand that caused the TV screens to switch on. Blair made a mental note to ask him the long version of the tech at some point soon to cheer him up.

"Photo and video forensics programs, back doors into every electronic banking system in the world, running heuristic data crawls all over the news sites to find our clients, oh also..."

"This is the short version?" Parker asked causing Blair to 'shh' her before focusing back on Hardison who shot her a smile before continuing,

"Facial recognition database tied into CIA, NSA and the FBI. But, the real piece-de-resistance," as he spoke the screens changed to the sports channel, "DirectTV HD, Total Sports Package. NFL, NBA, and I threw in a little bit of hockey 'cause I know you people like that." Blair raised her hand and Hardison waved a hand in her direction, "yes, I put the movie and the crappy freeform and CW like channels on there so you can watch your vampire and shadowhunter shows..." Blair put her hand back down on the table, happy she could have her TV time on the cool TV's, just as her father walked into the room.

"All right, stop kicking back," Nate informed them all as he sat down, "give him the flash drive, Blair." Blair pushed the flash drive over to Hardison who within a few clicks had the video up so the team could watch the video. With a flick of his finger Nate got Hardison to pause the video on Roberts's body causing Blair to look away. "Our client is the cameraman. Corporal Robert Perry. He says that the Castleman contractors spooked and started firing."

"5.56 NATO rounds mixed in with some 9 mils from the sub-machine guns." Elliot informed them, "Insurgents would have used AK-47s with 7.62 ammo. It has more of a..." he paused to hit the back of his hand to his palm causing as weird sound, "crack. Contractors shot 'em up all right." He concluded.

"You ID'd the weapon from the gunshot sound?" Parker asked him in amazement, as they all thought the same thing.

"It has a very distinctive sound" Elliot told them causing Blair to smile, at the way he defended his skill set.

"Castleman Security is hard-core folks." Hardison told them as the TV screens changed to show them blueprints, "Billion dollar company, they got fat government contracts everywhere we got troops." With a frown on his face Hardison pressed a button the keyboard in front of him and a picture of a man in his forties appeared on the screen, "That's Charles DuFort, CEO, very paranoid and very professional"

"I want to get this clear right now," Elliot turned to look at Nate, "this is a private army you're talking about taking on. They got their own Intel, assets, that means they got a lot of trigger pullers." Blair knew the last comment was a warning to her father about her. There was a possibility that she could be shot if she was on board this con, the people that they paid would not think twice about shooting a little girl.

"Yes, and lobbyists in every office in Washington, DC." Nate said with a wave of his hand as he took a drink from the glass in front of him, Elliot shot Blair a concerned look who was too busy frowning at her father drinking to notice the cowboys look. "The problem with a cover-up is all the paperwork it takes to keep the lies straight." Nate told them.

"Internal emails, memos..." Hardison said giving them a few examples and being rewarded with an "Exactly!" from Nate, "let's get to work!" he informed them and Blair looked confused at her father.

"Doing what? Exactly?" she asked, as she seemed to have missed out in what actually was the plan.

"We are stealing the evidence and threatening to expose them?" Sophie asked, looking at Nate trying to answer Blair's question for her.

"So Blackmail." Parker said simply.

"Yes, but just enough blackmail to, uh," Her dad paused to take a drink before continuing, "pay for Perri's rehab, maybe a couple of million more in damages."

"It'll never hold up in court."

"That is why Robert is lucky," Blair said causing all eyes to fall on her, as she gazed settled on the picture of the solider that was now on the TV screens and she summed up the whole thing so simply, in a soft voice "he doesn't have lawyers. He has thieves."

There was the scraping of chairs as everyone, one by one, left the room leaving Blair to her thoughts. She had come to realise over the last few months of getting to know the team (phone calls and texts helped a girl get to know them all better individually) that they all found her unquestioning support and trust a little weird. None of them expected someone to 120% trust them with anything no matter what, and then came Blair who was accidentally thrust into their lives who truly believed in them all even though she knew what they were. What they did. If something was ever to happen to her, she trusted them with her life and that complete trust she bestowed in them all immediately gained her respect and a fierce loyalty. She knew she was the most protected 18 year old on the planet probably, due to her odd group of friends. She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the familiar shout of her father saying, "Hardison!" Blair turned her head to see the coloured man in the doorway giving someone a weak smile. Blair smirked, it seemed her father had found the lovely painting hanging on the wall.

It was a week later that they got started, Castleman were having a party for Congressman Robert Jenkins, who was joining them with some bill or something, Blair wasn't sure really all she knew was the party was for him. Blair sighed from the back of the van she had to call home for the evening, Hardison's laptop up and open with 4 screens up showing the CCTV of the building the coloured man had easily hacked before leaving the van, two screens showing the party the other two switching between the hallways of the offices above. Blair didn't even blink when she heard Elliot's grumpy mutter in her hear, "Next time, I wear the suit." And she suppressed the giggle that was threatening to break from her lips when she saw the cowboy in the waiters outfit with his long hair tied back on the screen, he honestly looked rather funny. Before Blair could comment something to the cowboy, knowing she was safe from any fake punches he would throw her way, the familiar voice of Sophie said,

"DuFort's here. I'll make contact." Blair glanced at the screen and wasn't surprised to see Sophie walk over to were Elliot was stood, wearing a high end cocktail dress and fancy jewellery, that Blair knew was probably stolen, grabbing a drink from the tray the cowboy was holding. From the top screen Blair saw her father, in a suit move through the room,

"See what you can squeeze out of him." Nate told them and Blair knew this was her que to take over as much as she could. This was the only befit Blair could see about not being allowed near the con, other than sitting in Hardison's van, was that she was her father's eyes. Her dad was in charge but due to the fact she could see everything and had the opportunity to hear everyone without detractions she had final say and could suggest other ideas if she felt her father was putting someone in their team in unnecessary danger.

"Parker, Hardison, Sophie is distracting DuFort its time to hit his office." Blair told them hearing the hum of agreement from her father in her ear.

Almost instantly Hardison was trying to get out of his part of the plan and Blair couldn't argue with him. Parker had planned for them to repel down to the office from the outside as it made it easier for them all, not having to worry about alarms on every floor. "I gotta go back to the van, I just remembered something"

"What?" Parker asked.

"I just remembered gravity and the squishiness of all my manly bits"

"I designed this rig myself," Parker started and Blair flinched, it seemed as if Hardison had managed to offend the girl and Blair was thankful she was not up there on the roof with them, "the line is carbon fibre. Five point harness. Weight support here, here, and here. Auto-breaking resistance on the main pulley back here."

"Okay cool, so it's tested?"

"Not yet."

"Not yet?" Hardison's voice cracked a little, "when the hell was you gonna test it?" what happened next was predictable to everyone but Hardison. From the scream they all heard on the com it was clear that Parker had pushed him off the roof.

"Okay, Hardison, Parker, the guard sweeps the floor every ten minutes, that mean you have got nine minutes and thirty seconds." Blair told them when she heard Parker say she they were ready. Blair nodded though she knew they couldn't see her, on the screen that showed the party she watched as Sophie approached DuFort and Congressman Jenkins who were talking together, as the woman approached the end of the conversation the two men were having.

"Castleman is going to be very happy with the new Appropriations Bill," the Congressman told DuFort however before Sophie interrupted them.

"Pardon me, Congressman, Lilly McCreedy, I'm with Executive Orders." She told them both,

"They're a London-based Defence Contractor" DuFord said as he shook the hand that Sophie had extended before introducing himself to her, "Charles DuFord, Executive Orders doesn't work for the US government"

"Yet. Perhaps we can do something about that."

"Yes well, it was very nice to meet you. Now you'll have to excuse me" Jenkins said before walking away, leaving Sophie with DuFort.

"You're not poaching are you?" Blair heard DuFort ask Sophie, Blair watched the screen as Sophie turned to face the man with a small smile on her face, "Appropriations Bill 718, those are our defence contracts, don't even bother."

"Mr. DuFort, surely there's enough war to go around." Sophie flirted, causing Blair to roll her eyes. It seemed Sophie's main talent was flirting, something she really was only happy about when it was directed at her father.

"I rather like you." DuFort told her,

"Of course you do." Blair muttered, "She's flirting." Thankfully nobody heard her as everyone was focusing on their own jobs.

"Blair, Hardison" Nate's familiar voice spoke firmly, "what is this, this Bill they are talking about?" Blair knew that her father asked her because she could look it up online, but Hardison was probably in the better position to answer the question as he was in DuFort's office. Before Blair could tell this to her father Hardison replied,

"You know, I'd like to give you the Schoolhouse Rock, but this man has a RFID security card reader on his power supply so I'm a little bit busy."

"I'll see what I can find online about it dad" Blair told her father before she minimised the screen and started typing away online trying to find anything about the Bill.

"Ohh, old school." Parker spoke up after a while, and Blair cocked her head to listen to the girl as she searched, "I found a safe." Parker said, "you're not going to believe this, its voice activated."

"Any bets we need something in that safe." Blair muttered before she could stop herself, resulting in her father sighing loudly.

"All right, well one probable at a time." Nate informed them all, "Sophie, I'm going in. we need to get an RFID card to Eliot." Blair had no clue how they were going to the second part of that, but she hoped the others had some idea.

"My company's focused on meeting senators," Sophie told DuFort not acknowledging Nate at all, which made her one of the best grifters in the world, "but I'm thinking congressmen."

"You know the great thing about congressmen?" DuFort told Sophie, "Fifty, a hundred grand well spent will get one elected, but then once they're in the incumbency rate is over 95 percent so you can get an average 18, 20 years' use out of one of them. In these uncertain times buying a United States congressman is one of the best investments a corporation can make." There was a paused and Hardison was quick to state the one thing the whole team were thinking.

"Oh I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I'm a professional criminal and I find that disturbing." Blair wasn't alone as she hummed in agreement to what the hacker said. DuFort creeped her out. Having found nothing on the Bill online Blair exited the internet and put the screen back up on the laptop just to see her dad wiping something on the back of DuFort's jacket, moving away while Sophie and DuFort talk waiting for the opportunity to walk back over and interrupt them. Quickly grabbing a napkin Blair watched her dad walk over and point to DuFort's jacket,

"You have a little dip on..." he trailed off just as DuFort took off his jacket. Blair watched intently as Sophie used the distraction to pull out DuFort's wallet from his back and remove the RFID card. "I don't think it should be hard to get out in the wash" Nate's voice rang out in the van as he fussed over the man's jacket.

"Let me see if it can get someone to help you with that." Sophie said, waving Elliot over. "Excuse me,"

"Yes, Ma'am" Elliot said as he walked over, Blair (because she was looking for it) saw Sophie slip him the RFID card under his tray.

"I was wondering if you could help us," Sophie informed him, "we seemed to have gotten a little stain on this jacket." She pointed out the stain and Elliot looked surprised.

"Oh, look at that. Let me take care of that for you." He went to take the jacket but was stopped by DuFort who quickly took his wallet out of his jacket before allowing Elliot to take it.

"Let me keep this." DuFort said with a laugh, "A man in my position shouldn't forget his wallet. That's embarrassing."

"Elliot's got the RFID, Hardison" Blair informed the Hacker who simply told Elliot to place the card next to his phone.

"I'm in!" Hardison say before he starts typing away.

"Okay, next problem to solve," Blair told them all, as she knew her dad couldn't talk as he was with DuFort and Sophie talking. "Parker, whats the status of the voicelock?" she asked the theif.

"Uh, I've been sampling DuFort's speech but I still need a few more sounds." She told the girl. Blair watched as her father excused himself before asking.

"How many?"

"Well I only need the sounds Puh, Tuh, oo, ah, eh, oh, ah, ke, a, ef." Parker spoke simplu.

"ah, Only those." Blair muttered causing both Elliot and Hardison to laugh a little. Blair watched as Elliot walked back over to DuFort and Sophie with two trays of Appetizers, his aim was clearly to get the man to talk.

"Ohh, mmm." Sophie said, making yummy noises when Elliot approached.

"Appetizer sir?" Elliot asked and Blair sat back and watched as Elliot purposefully stopped the man from taking the food he wanted, as he tried to get the man to say the sounds Parker needed. It was extreamly entertaning until Elliot walked away, causing the man to swear loudly at him.

"Oh, there they are." Was Parkers only response, "really loud too." Causing Blair to finally burst out laughing as her father informed Sophie to walk away, though it was Sophie she had other plans. As the two adults argued about her playing a hunch Blair focused back on the two in the office.

"Hardison, I guess you have about three minutes, what do you have?"

"Too much. They've got all Perry's medical records. Which, sure is pretty normal but they've got psych evaluation, high school records, they're reading his emails." Hardison told her and Blair frowned. That all seemed like too much information. She heard Hardison and Parker chatter in the back ground talking about them tapping his phone and surveillance photos. Until suddenly something clicked.

"SHIT!" was all she could say, before she pulled out her ear piece and ran from the van. For the first time she was thankful that Elliot had told her how to hot wire both a car and a motorbike, seeing a motorbike near the van she quickly hopped onto it and hot wired it. She needed to get to Robert ASAP. He had seen something and DuFort had been watching him to see what exactly, but it was only a matter of time before they got rid of their lose thread. She knew her dad was smart and would come to the same conclusion but she had to get there first, to make sure Robert was okay. Finally on the third try she got the bike to work and before she could think about it,she had driven off, headed towards the hospital glad her daily texting with Robert had helped her to get to know him enough to know he was there.

The hospital was dark with the exception of the ground floor reception when Blair pulled into its parking lot. Blair quickly hopped off the bike, though after only a few steps the bike she had once been on toppled over causing her to mutter a soft apology to it before she even realised what she did. Her focus was on Robert, not the stupid bike. The security guard stationed behind the reception gave her a look that clearly was meant to be scary when she entered the hospital. The whole look didn't work as he was this ginger young man who looked like he had never shot or even punched someone in his life. "What are you doing here?" he asked her and she smiled at him walking towards the desk to look the man in the eye.

"I've just got in from a long flight, and I was hoping I could see my fiancée before I go home?" As she spoke she quickly took the promise ring her dad had given her mother which Blair had taken as her own during their break up, putting it onto her wedding finger knowing it could look like an engagement ring.

"Fiancée?" the guard asked, looking her over. She looked young she knew but that doesn't mean that she couldn't be engaged. As if to prove her point she raised her left hand and showed him the ring that sat happily on her ring finger. "Who is it you are seeing?" the guard said after a moment, Blair smirking at his surprised expression when he saw the ring.

"Perry, Robert Perry." She told him softly, causing the guard to nod.

"I will escort you to him, and get one of the nurses to escort you back." He told Blair who nodded, she wasn't bothered if a guard was coming she just needed to see Robert was alive.

The guard knocked on Perry's door after 10 minutes of slow walking and silence, with Blair nervously trailing behind him as she looked at every shadowy corner expecting one of the Castlemen to be there waiting. "Come in doc," Robert said from the other side of the door and the security guard opened the door for Blair stepping to the side so she could enter, Robert looked surprised to see her and the simple surprised exclaim of "Blair!" was all he could say before she walked into the room and kissed him soundly on the lips. Blair felt Robert freeze for a moment before he kissed her back, though eventually Blair was the one to break the kiss leaving them both a little out of breath. She felt Robert let out a soft laugh and she looked at him with a smile on her face, "not that I am complaining," he told the girl who had just kissed him, "but what did I do to deserve that? So I know to do it again in the future." Blair let out a laugh and shook her head.

"That annoying guard wouldn't let me in so I told him we were engaged. I thought a public display of attention would get him to leave," Blair paused and glanced at the doorway which was empty, "which seems to have worked." As she turned back her face went back to its serious expression, she had just remembered why she had rushed to the Hospital in the first place, and "you trust me, don't you?" she asked, looking at Robert, who simply nodded, "is there somewhere we could go, other than this room? I think you're in danger," Blair could see the questions in Roberts expression but thankfully he knew better than to ask them just yet, instead he simply nodded and grabbed his walking cane,

"We can go to the Rehab room, though I may need a little support getting there," Robert told her with a smile which Blair returned, moving to his left side to support him as they slowly left the room.

"I don't have the answers I know you want to ask, honestly I left as soon as I figured you might be in danger." Blair whispered as they walked slowly down the empty halls.

"How will we know if I am?"

"Simple, my dad will turn up." Blair said worry was clearly heard in her voice causing Robert to squeeze her fingers a little trying to comfort her.

"You need a distraction," he told her and she raised her eyebrow as if to ask 'what kind of distraction', which caused him to smile and look at the long bar that was in the centre of the room. "How about you help me with my exercises?" Blair glanced at the boy and nodded, anything to stop her from thinking about him dying would be a good idea. "Great." With that he swiftly kissed her before he grabbed the bar to show he what the exercises were. Blair couldn't contain the blush that rose upon her cheeks, Robert Perry was something else.

* * *

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	6. Chapter 6

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 2, The Homecoming Job ~ Pt. 2**

* * *

The odd "engaged" duo of Blair and Robert Perry were practicing walking, or Robert was, using handlebars to help steady himself with Blair there ready to catch him if he needed it. As he reached the end, were Blair was standing he gave her a smile before looking over her shoulder as the footsteps of someone coming could be heard. "Sorry Doc, I know this areas is closed but I wanted to show... Mr. Ford?" At the mention of her father's name Blair turned too, to see her father in the doorway, Sophie behind him, both of them still in their fancy clothes though they looked a little dishevelled from running around the hospital most likely.

"Dad?" was all Blair could say as she watched him grab a nearby wheelchair and position it so Robert could sit down in it.

"We gotta get you out of here, now." Was all Nate said, causing Blair to share a look with Robert, something Nate missed but Sophie did not.

"Why?" the soldier asked, not in a worried voice but as if he was double checking something, not moving from next to Blair who was helping him stand upright.

"Castleman." Was all Nate said before pushing the chair in front of Robert, Sophie moving forward to help Robert into the chair, "Come on."

As he got into the chair, Robert lifted his hand to Sophie to introduce himself to the woman he had yet to meet, "Rob Perry."

"Sophie Devereux." Sophie replied before laughing a girly laugh and all but feeling the solidjer up causing Blair to glare at the woman. As Sophie told Robert off for being "handsy" Nate noticed the look his daughter sent the woman and he was a little conflicted. He felt Blair shouldn't be acting jealous but at the same time he wanted to laugh.

"I'm in a wheelchair, I'm not blind." Robert told Sophie bluntly glancing at Blair to make sure he meant nothing of what Sophie was on about. Under Roberts gaze Blair's glare softened and she moved forward to start pushing him, with the words "Let's go" being her only indication of hearing the two adults in the room.

As they walked through the hospital, trying not to look like they were rushing when they were in fact rushing, they all knew their destination was the elevators closest to the back of the hospital. Blair suppressed a scream of shock when two huge bulky men came hurtling round the corner, one of them pulling a knife from his coat. The only reason Blair didn't scream was because she saw Elliot come up behind the men. If anyone could fight the men and protect them, it would be Elliot. "Get in the elevator!" Nate told the girls and Rob and Blair let out a laugh as Sophie gave her dad a pointed look as she hammered on the elevator button. They could only get into the elevator when the bloody thing turned up. Blair watched her father curse silently before he ran forward grabbing a nearby gurney pushing it down the hallway to block the men's path. Blair felt something hold her hand, and she looked down to see Rob had grabbed her hand to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. Blair shot him a smile before looking back at the hallway just as Elliot starts what he does best. Blair was in awe at the way he moved, she had heard him fight, read about him fighting but had yet to witness it in person. In one movement, Elliot had knocked one man into the wall as he pushed the other into the gurney, causing him to flip to the ground. The first man turned from Blair, Sophie, Nate and Robert, rising his knife at Elliot, who simply smirks and easy deflects the somewhat messy attempts to stab him, using a nearby IV pole as a way to deflect and get the blade from the man. Once he was finished with and lying on the ground Elliot focused his attentions on the man he had pushed over the gurney but Blair's father was on that, with the help of Robert.

"Mr. Ford!" Robert shouted, as the man Elliot had simply pushed against the wall ran towards them, thankfully Robert pushed a defibrillator towards Nate, who grabbed the paddles with a smirk.

"Hello." Nate told the man as he was pushed towards him, hitting him in the chest with the paddles causing him to fly backwards, unconscious. Just in that moment the elevator dung open and Blair couldn't help let out a laugh and an awed exclamation of

"That was so awesome! Elliot I've never seen you fight before, like wow!" Blair said in the rush, letting go of Roberts chair to rush forward to give her favourite cowboy a hug.

"Glad to see you're alright, little miss." Elliot told her returning the hug, lowering his voice as they made their way towards the elevator which Nate, Robert and Sophie were in, "Though you are in so much trouble."

As if to prove that the moment they were safely into the elevator her dad turned to her looking her in the eye with an unimpressed expression, "how exactly does my 18 year old daughter know how to hot wire a motor bike?" Blair simply shot him a smile, as Elliot looked away trying not to look guilty. Yes her dad was not happy with her.

Once they had seen Robert back to his room, Nate had all but marched Blair back to their HQ, where Blair had told him she was changing as he and the team were having their meeting. She knew she could catch up. She just wanted to get into comfy clothes and get away from her father's glare. Blair wandered to the entrance to the conference room, wearing Parkers joggy bottoms, Hardison's jumper and she had grabbed one of Elliot's hats. She knew she was stealing from them all but none of them complained, plus they gave her some sense of safety. She noticed that on the table there was a smattering of things and they team were talking about how they were going to make it look like Robert had killed himself. Before she could make her presence known her dad rounded the corner and bottle of liquor and a glass in his hand, "I've put Perry in a safe house." Was his only greeting to his team, causing them all to look over at him and his daughter who was looking nervous but slightly ridiculous in everyone else's clothes. Blair moved into the room standing between Parker and Elliot's seats, instantly taking Parker's hand who was more than happy to squeeze it knowing the girl needed some comfort. It was as if everything that had happened and could have happened had just dawned on her.

"Play time is over Nate, it's only a matter of time before they come after us" She heard Elliot say from next to her, and she turned to watch her dad, "the tall one, the way he used a knife, ex-Marine, probably Force Recon."

"You ID'ed a guy off his knife-fighting style?" Hardison said, the way he said it would normally cause Blair to laugh but today she was too tired to really respond as the two men squabbled like siblings.

"It's a very distinctive style."

Blair's focus was on her father, he too was ignoring the men but instead he was pouring himself a rather full glass of brandy, before drinking from the bottle. Blair raised a questioning eyebrow at him as he placed the glace on the table, he met her eye and all he could say was "for later." Causing her to groan softly, the look down at the table. Her father had to stop drinking and she had no idea how to stop him.

"I didn't sign up for any of this." Hardison told them all, "what I did before, nobody got hurt."

"I stole paintings for a living." Sophie spoke up, not looking away from Blair who she was glancing at worriedly. If Nate wasn't going to parent the girl she was the one who would have too.

"I never hurt anybody." Parker spoke up

"I actually hurt people, so..." Elliot awkwardly said, causing Blair to actually giggle and most of the room smiled at the sound. It seemed their Blair was back.

"Nate, if anything had happened to Blair or this kid –" Sophie started but she was interrupted by Nate.

"You know you guys called me. You remember?" Nate told them all looking down the tabled looking at them all except Blair, "you begged me to run the crew, agreed to play by my rules. Now walk out if you have a problem with that. Walk out any day if you have a problem."

Everyone in the room was silent except for Blair, who was looking at her dad as if she didn't know who he was.

"I could have died dad."

"But you didn't." was the response he gave her causing her to shake her head.

"We finish this job for Robert, then if you want me around anymore dad you better start acting like a father." With that Blair turned and left the room. She knew they would figure out a plan but at that moment she was too annoyed with her dad and his stupid drinking and his stupid ego. She needed some time to clear her head and she knew whatever their next step was she really couldn't be a part of it. The government would know something was up when an 18 year old entered the building. So unless she wanted to sit and do nothing she was better off staying out of the way, it would give her time to calm down. She hated being annoyed at her dad but in the moment she felt she had good reason to be.

A month passed before Blair was caught up on the team's plans and what they had been up too in the last week. She had been using her little time off to enjoy herself. From talking to Robert almost every day, to finishing all the home school work she needed to do for that month. In fact she had spent the majority of her time lazing around Leverage HQ on her own. She was being stubborn, but her father was slowly getting worse as she knew her being in the huff wasn't going to help him but she was still mad at him. It was Hardison who approached her about 2 weeks after her outburst to tell her what had been going on in their little scheme. Sophie had spoken to Congressman Jenkins, making him question DuFort and his loyalties, where as her dad had gone to talk to DuFort to make him question Jenkins. It was a simple play, in theory, but it was making sure they pulled the right strings so that both men would ruin the other. On top of that they needed to make sure the Bill that DuFort needed didn't go through. Blair looked up from her small cubby when she heard movement in the offices, yes the team had come and gone but this was the first time that the majority of the team (all of them bar Parker and Sophie). "Congressman Jenkins is very careful." She heard Hardison say, his voice carrying from the meeting room as the doors had been left open. Blair knew he had done that purposefully as the girls curiosity would get the better of her one day, letting out a sigh Blair stood. It seemed that it was today her curiosity was going to win. "no direct bribes but he's renovating his house and so far he's received over $600,000 worth of work for a little over fifty grand" Blair shuffled to the door of the room just in time to see Hardison put a picture up of a large grand looking house onto the screens.

"So Castleman owns the contracting company, huh?" Elliot asked, noticing Blair at the door and shooting Hardison a look, who simple smirked but kept going.

"I mean, he's going through like three shell companies but yeah." Hardison said, "And this man loves his house. Just check out his web browsing habits." It took him to clicks on his keyboard and the images changed to a website for wood panels. "Look here, see the man spent three weeks picking out the perfect mahogany wood panels. This site is like wood porn." Blair let out a giggle and all three men in the room looked over at the door to see the girl who had been hiding from them all standing there. Instead of making a big deal, Elliot turned to Hardison and spoke rather forcefully,

"Is his house finished?"

"What?" Hardison looked at Elliot, before back to the screens, "Not even close."

"Can I borrow your phone?" Blair asked walking into the room, looking over all the plans. Without even thinking Hardison took his phone out of his pocket and handing it to the girl who quickly dialled a number and put it too her ear. "Hello?" Blair spoke in her most professional sounding voice, "I would like to cancel a delivery on some mahogany wood panelling. Please." Blair smirked and waved her hand in Hardison's direction as he tried to take the phone off her, causing Elliot to laugh at their childish ways. "The Jenkins house. Yeah, you know what, do me a favour. Just go ahead and cancel the whole order." Blair smirked and hung up the phone, throwing it back at Hardison just as Nate decided to pay attention to the antics going on around him. Looking up from his book he watched the exchange with a curious look.

"What are you two up too?" he asked, causing Elliot to laugh.

"Yanking the congressman's chain." Hardison told Nate with a shrug, as if that was a normal every day thing. Which they could see as a normal thing, considering what they did for a living that is. Instead of asking any more questions on the topic of Blair and Hardison being children he looked at Elliot, who was getting to his feet.

"Has Parker started her run yet?" Blair sat down in the chair Elliot had just vacated, smiling sweetly at the cowboy who shot her a look before glancing at Nate moving so he stood behind the girls chair, hands resting on the back of it.

"Just now." Blair turned to her father who was eyeing her up, as if wondering how she was after a month of minimal talking. Instead of saying anything, like asking what they were on about she simply turned to look at the screens as Hardison complained.

"You know I still think it would be easier for me to just hack the bill in the printer queue." This caused Elliot to let out a laugh and Nate to smirk and look at both Hardison and Blair who were looking confused at the laugh Elliot had given.

"No, no computers," Nate said, shaking his head with a smirk on his face, "The Bill is put into a wooden box on the congressional floor called the Hopper."

Both Blair and Hardison had two very different responses to this information. Blair burst out laughing, mainly because she thought the name of the box was the most stupid thing she had ever heard. Hardison on the other hand started spluttering in shock, "A wood – a wooden box?"

"A wooden box." Nate repeated, watching as Hardison slumped back in his chair.

"Wood? Well, we can put a man on the moon but all our laws go into a wooden box." He said in amazement, but Blair thought it was a smart idea. No one could 'hack' a box. Or no one just yet. As her father talked about how they needed to get DuFort to believe Jenkins had abandoned him, Blair finally realised what Parker was up to. They had the thief break into the building and put the pages they had created into the bill and put it in the box. Smiling at the fact she had figured out the plan, Blair leant back in her chair looking up at the cowboy who glanced at her and mouthed 'coffee?'. It seemed both of them where ignoring Hardison and Nate as they talked. Blair nodded her head and Elliot left the room without even bothering to explain to the men in the room with them why he was doing so. Blair tuned back into the conversation just as Hardison said, "I mean, break a law, everybody's done that. Blair's done that now," this caused Nate to frown and Blair smiled, it seemed her dad did care for her, "but steal a law. Oh, she's gonna be a legend baby."

Before anyone could respond, the sounds of Quacking was heard ringing in the offices and Blair blushed, "that's my phone," was all she said before she rushed from the room, noting from the corner of her eye, Parker waving to them from the CCTV of the Senate Floor. When she got to her office Blair noticed two things; one was a mug of coffee thanks to the cowboy who was in his own office now doing goodness knows what, and the second was her phone which showed a text from Robert. Smiling she opened it, to read 'When this is all over, I think it's only fair I take you on a proper date.' The girl supressed the urge to squeal, mainly because no one in the offices would understand why she was so happy, honestly were was Sophie when she needed her. Quickly typing a reply saying she would love to go, she watched the text send before leaning on the doorway to her office area. Her life may be mad, and strange and nothing like any other 18 year olds, but she couldn't say it was boring. It was a life she was slowly becoming to love and now with a cute boy in the mix she could see herself becoming very used to this way of life.

Blair smiled as the elevator doors to her and her father's apartment opened, the smell pot roast in the oven instantly hit her and she wasn't surprised, as she wandered towards the kitchen to see the back of her 'boyfriend's head as he wheeled around the kitchen prepping dinner for the two of them. The 'safe house' Nate had secured for Robert was in fact their apartment as it was the only safe place other than the offices he knew Castleman couldn't get to him at. "Honey I'm home." Blair said as she leaned against the wall smiling as Robert turned to look at her. She still wasn't used to the smile that appeared on his face whenever he saw her, it was something that made her feel all warm inside, and it was one of the many reasons she hoped that whatever was happening between them would happen for a little longer. At least keep going past when they were done with his case.

"You're back early," Robert said with raised eyebrow as she sighed and rolled her eyes,

"I was getting annoyed with my dad," She told him, "there is only so much we can do when we don't have Sophie."

"Isn't she coming back?" the boy asked as he wheeled their dinner to the dining table, Blair followed behind him, smiling in surprise to see the table was already set. Boy, Robert thought of everything.

"She is back tomorrow, but that still left us a week with only so much we can do." Blair explained, "My dad's become edgy, he doesn't like doing nothing. He hasn't learned how to switch his brain off."

"I know someone else who is like that," she heard Robert comment as he plated up and she couldn't help but let out a small laugh. In the short time they had been talking and flirting Robert had easily figured out that Blair was always thinking of something, if it was reading through her dads old casefiles trying to figure out how he did it, or if she was watching murder mysteries trying to figure out who did it before the end. Blair liked to keep her brain working so when her dad needed her she was ready.

"Oh ha. Ha." Blair smirked, before she could say anything else the elevator door opened once again and Nate walked out, "oh just in time Dad, foods ready."

"What?" Nate said walking into the room to see Robert and Blair at the table, "oh, food."

"Yes, thank Rob for cooking for us." Blair said looking pointedly at her father who rolled his eyes but muttered a thanks. Blair sent Robert an apologetic look but by that point they all knew there was no point trying to apologise about how rude Nate was. the same conversation happened almost every night for the last month and a half, Blair knew it was because he didn't like the relationship between her and Robert but he knew he couldn't do anything about it as Blair was old enough to make decisions herself. Blair sat back and sighed, it was going to be a long evening like always.

* * *

 **There was some issues, so thank you for informing me so i could fix and re-upload this chapter :) tell me your thoughts,**

 **Love**

 **Sazzacubz 13 xx**

 ***This is on wattpad too***


	7. Chapter 7

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 2, The Homecoming Job ~ Pt. 3**

* * *

Thankfully Sophie was coming back today, much to the joy of the whole team. Blair was sitting cross legged on one of the chairs in the Conference room with the rest of the team listening to an audio file of Jenkins and DuFort arguing that Parker had gotten, though Blair had no clue how. The start of the clip was boring, but Blair had come to the realisation ages ago that things in life didn't quite work like they did in movies, you didn't just play a clip and you got the 15 second audio clip that told you everything you needed to know, no you got sat down with a coffee and got made to listen to 3 hours of nonsense before finding that 15 second clip to show the rest of the team. It was worth it though, the proud look on her dads face when she should him what she had found had been worth it. The sounds of heels announced the arrival of the team member they had all been missing, though no one them bar Blair would admit it. Before anyone could say anything, Nate spoke to the person entering the room, not opening his eyes as he sat at the end of the table. "How was Washington?"

"Villians, Con-men, Wolves in sheep's clothing." Came the familiar voice of Sophie as she stood in the doorway of the room, "I felt right at home." This last comment caused Blair to grin and before anyone could stop her she had pushed back her chair and ran to Sophie to give her a hug.

"Sophie! I missed you." Blair said, and the woman happily returned the hug, "you came back just in time," Blair whispered and Sophie pulled away looking from Blair to Nate asking a silent question with her eyes and Blair subtly nodded once. Blair was worried about her dad, she always was, and she liked having Sophie around as she knew the woman kept an eye on him also.

"This is pretty good. Listen to this." Nate said, clearly ignoring the silent conversation Sophie and Blair had had and pressing a button to cause the audio Blair had been forced to listen too all morning to blare loudly.

"Don't call me this is your contractor's problem" DuForts voice came loudly from the speakers in the room.

"Oh please. Let's not pretend..." Jenkins voice said.

"You pulled all our earmarks from the Appropriations Bill." DuFort voice said, Blair rolled her eyes and thankfully Hardison paused the audio and skipped ahead a few seconds to the one section they actually wanted to hear.

"There is about 3 hours of that," Hardison told Sophie which caused Blair to snort loudly, she knew all too well of the 3 hours as she got made to sit and listen to it all, "but here is the high point."

"Somebody screwed up." Jenkins voice said, "I've always been there for you. I called Manilla, I cleared customs for you in Los Angeles and that was a risk." Hardison paused the audio with a dramatic flick of his finger and Blair spoke up.

"There is nothing after that really." She told the occupants of the room, but Hardison gave her a sceptical look.

"What Little Miss means to say is that after that they... well, whatever you call the rich guys on telephones' version of make-up sex" This caused Blair to pull a face and Elliot, Parker and Hardison all laughed at how uncomfortable Blair was. "But, now we know, Castleman makes a thousand shipments a month, but one ship through Manilla, right after the shooting, linked to phone records from the congressman." As he spoke, Hardison put several pictures of documents up on the screens to back up his point, before pressing a button on the keyboard in front of him to cause those screens to change to show a picture of the L.A. Harbour filled with containers, Blair turned to look at Parker and Elliot to see they both looked as confused at the new picture as she was. "Their shipments come through here." Hardison explained to the room at large, not noticing Blair, Elliot and Parker's confused faces turn to ones of realisation, "Now somewhere in this madness is container 541. Its currently sitting at the Port of Los Angeles."

"What's in it?" Parker asked

"no idea, but its moving in two days. Headed to the main Castleman storage facility in Kansas."

"Now that, that's why they tried to hit Perry, right there, that's it." Nate said in a tone of realisation. Blair turned to him, she had come to that conclusion weeks ago but it seemed as if her father refused to even think of it as a possibility until there was proof.

"They wanted to tie up all the loose ends before they tucked this one away at home base." Elliot spoke up, explaining what Nate said to the rest of them

"Well duh." Blair muttered, but from the glance Elliot gave her she realised she had been heard.

"What do you ship in a crate, from Iraq?" Sophie asked the room at large

"Oh boy. Something worth killing for!" was all Nate said, which caused Blair to look back at the picture of the containers. These men where up to something and she knew they were soo close to the answers, but that was only the first step in everything they needed to do.

Blair had never been to the Port of Los Angeles, so she couldn't help but look in awe as she got off the back of Elliot's motorbike (there wasn't enough room for them all to go by car, and like hell was she being left to do nothing in their offices). Before her father could protest she had already started following Parker into the shipping yard, trying not to watch the cranes in awe as they towered above them moving crates. Elliot and Hardison eventually caught up with the two girls as they wandered around the maze of crates trying to find 541, Hardison handing them both ear pieces which they both put into their ears just in time to hear the frustrated voice of Nate ask, "How's security?"

"There is way more security than I would put up for somewhere like this," Blair commented, as they hid behind a container as a set of Castleman guards came round the corner, clearly on patrol.

"Dockyard entrance is no problem but..." Elliot started to speak, but stopped as the guards started to move again, though thankfully off in a different direction.

"But?!" Nate all but shouted into their ears and Blair let out a small giggle, she knew he was worried but his reactions where pretty funny. As the men moved off Elliot seemed to freeze and point to a container.

"There it is. Its 541!" he told them all sounding proud that he was the one who found it. Without thinking Elliot started to walk in the direction of the container, but before he could take more than two steps Hardison had grabbed him and pulled him back to their little hiding spot. Blair shot Parker a look trying to figure out why Hardison was being so weird but she simply shrugged, it seemed Parker had no clue ether.

"Hold up Rambo." Hardison said, causing another round of giggles to erupt from Blair's mouth with the three adults ignored. Hardison was too busy concentrating, he had some app thing he designed on his phone to tell him if there was any electronics in the area. Blair saw both Elliot and Parker roll their eyes as he started to list things that weren't there, "So, no lasers, no motion detectors, no vibration sensors, no – whoops." He paused and there was a moment of silence before the uneasy voice of Nate came ringing through their ears.

"Whoops? What whoops?"

"There is a webcam." Hardison explained, "I am picking up on its broadcast on my phone." Blair felt an arm on her shoulder and Elliot lead her away as Parker and Hardison start talking about how to cut off the signal.

"Watch this..." Elliot muttered to Blair a smirk on his face as he picked up a large rock. With a small run up he launched the rock at the webcam and it shatters causing Blair to clap a little for her cowboy friend, who gave her a small bow and a wink as Hardison said,

"Or that..." in a defeated tone.

"Let's go, come on." Elliot said as Blair caught up with him easily Parker letting out a laugh as they walked towards the container,

"I'm sorry it was too far away for you to punch, I'm sure that really frustrates you." Hardison muttered loudly.

Parker instantly got to work picking the lock, while Hardison and Elliot, who had put his arm around Blair's shoulder, kept watch for the next patrol to come round. Elliot was keeping Blair close in case there was trouble, he knew he could keep her safe and she would be his priority over the other two, from the smirk on her face when she made eye contact with him Elliot knew Blair knew of his priorities too. "What do you think is in there?" Hardison asked, looking at the container with scepticism.

"Artifacts from Baghdad museums, maybe some from the Saddam palaces..." Parker started but Elliot interrupted her.

"No, I bet its weapons. Lot of back alley arms dealings going on in a war zone." This caused Blair to laugh just as Parker managed to unlock the lock.

"I guess we are going to see which of you is right," Blair commented causing Parker to shoot her a smile before Hardison and Elliot opened the metal doors. Honestly what they found inside was not what Blair was expecting, she had thought the container would be filled along the lines of the things Parker was talking about. Rare items that DuFort could sell at a later date for more money, but what was inside surprised them all. The whole container was filled to the brim with pallets of cash.

"Money's good too." Hardison said, and Elliot and Blair hummed with agreement, Blair having never seen so much money in her life, she was in awe of the sight. What burst her little awe bubble was Parker as she moved forward to hug the money giggling, this in turn caused Blair to laugh.

Blair didn't dare touch the money that Elliot and Parker had managed to smuggle out of the shipping yard. Parker on the other hand was stroking it reverently as everyone watched her. "Okay, that's worth killing for." Sophie said after a few moments pause. Hardison had filled in Nate and Sophie as to what they had found but nether believed them until Elliot dumped the money onto the conference room table before leaving the room to get something from his cubby.

"Ultraviolet checks out, the paper checks out, the watermarks, the ick, it all checks out." Hardison puffed out looking at the paper baffled, but to Blair what he said caused her to understand what the hell the boy had been doing in the car on the ride back to their building.

"There is a whole container of it from Iraq of all places, it's gotta be counterfeit." Sophie said in disbelief as she looked over the paper. Elliot re-entered the room but only Blair seemed to notice as everyone else was watching Parker pick up some of the money and rub it against her face, Blair shot Elliot a look as Parker sighed happily,

"No, it's real. It feels real."

"Hey, what do you got going on," Elliot asked the girl as he handed Blair the hoodie he kept in his office for her, "you and Hardison, what is it like a creepy contest?" He finished smirking at the faces Hardison and Parker pulled at him as he sat down in the chair next to the one Blair was curled in, now with a overlarge hoodie looking more comfortable and childlike. No one saw the smile that appeared on Nate's face as he watched the subconscious gesture of Elliot's. He knew Blair was well loved and he was glad he could somehow give her this dysfunctional family that cared about her like she needed to be cared about.

"I don't know what is it two, three hundred million in US currency?" Sophie asked, and Blair finally decided to speak up, looking at her father,

"What is it doing in Iraq?" she asked.

"We sent it there," Nate simply replied, leaning back putting his fingers under his chin as he thought about something. It took everyone at the table a few seconds to compute what the man said and they all turned to look at him.

"What?" Elliot asked the question they were all thinking.

"Beginning of the Iraq war my old company helped insure the largest currency transfer in history." Nate explained, "Billions and Billions in ones, fives and twenties, all cash. Sent to Iraq for reconstruction."

"Bribes." Elliot explained to them all and Nate nodded his head.

"As needed." With a sigh he glanced at the money then to his team, "Nine Billion went missing," he said simply. As Blair computed what he said her jaw fell open. It seemed she wasn't the only one who was shocked as Sophie was quick to ask,

"Wait, billion? With a 'b'?" When Nate nodded she shook her head looking amazed, "Nine billion dollars of US taxpayer money just disappeared."

"Castleman gets a cut of the booty." Hardison realises, and Blair frowned and spoke softly,

"So the day they go to move it, real soldier, they see the transfer..."

"One of the contractors spooks and starts shooting." Elliot finished for the teen who was looking shocked that money had been the cause of all the trouble Robert had found himself in. As if she was on the same wavelength as Blair Parker finally spoke up,

"But Corporal Perry didn't see anything."

"Well, they don't know that." Nate spoke glancing at Blair with a worried gaze, but his daughters gaze was on Hardison as he pulled files up onto the screens.

"Castleman's a billion dollar company why would they even care about this cash?"

"Because its cash." Nate explained simply, and Blair couldn't help but nod her head at that. "You know money is money, but that's one thing. Cash is a whole other thing." Nate paused and saw 4 confused faces and his daughter slowly coming to the realisation he had come too. "For all the money in the economy there is only about $500 cash for every American."

"Untraceable small bills," Sophie said, picking up some of the money that was on the table, "perfect for slush funds or home improvements for US congressman."

"Or small time donors, you know for re-election. No electronic trail." Hardison pointed out.

"Its money laundering." Blair said finally and Nate beamed at her,

"Exactly!"

"So how?" Sophie asked, looking from Blair to Nate. Nate picked up the iPad and started to write on it the images appearing on the screens, explained as he did 'how'.

"All right, well Castleman uses the illegal cash to re-elect his congressman. Congressman gets him no bid contracts for government jobs, and the government pays for his services with legal money. There's the circle, right there." He concluded with a tap of the iPad.

"They ruined the entire US government into a money laundering scam."

"It looks that way," Blair told Hardison who shook his head in disbelief.

"Brilliant, I'm impressed."

"I never thought I'd say this, ever, but that is just way too much money to steal." Sophie said with a loud sigh.

"No, you're not going to steal it." Blair said with a frown, and her dad let out a laugh as the criminals all gave the teenager a look.

"Don't you remember? You're the good guys now, you're gonna give it back." He said, causing Blair to laugh now at the reactions around the table.

The plan to expose Jenkins and DuFord was a simple one, however like normal Blair had been told she wasn't allowed in the midst of the plan, though she was happy to have some role to play other than just sitting in the van waiting. She was to act like the bored teenager of Nate and Sophie who were to be a tourist couple. When Nate had told her this she had gotten a knowing smirk from Hardison, but when she arrived the next day in short shorts, a white top and the most ridiculous pink Hawaiian shirt Elliot and Parker burst out laughing at her. She knew she looked stupid but it was what was handed to her by Sophie and it was all part of their cover. So that was how Blair was following behind Sophie and her dad as they argued about where her dad as supposedly parked the car, looking like a strange family. "The car is right over there!" Her father told Sophie his huge hat almost falling off his head causing Blair to smirk and look down at her phone. She had made sure during their little wander to text Hardison to make sure the three where safe as there seemed to be more guards than last time they have visited, and they all were heavily armed from what she could see. Talking of guards the moment Nate had spoken one of the guards stationed near container 541 seemed to spot them.

"Hey! You three!" he shouted, and Blair groaned,

"Way to go dad, you got us in trouble." She said trying to act like a bratty teenager.

"I told you we should have taken the shuttle bus." Sophie tutted and Blair rolled her eyes

"Mom, that would have gotten us more lost," she said, missing the blush that appeard on Sophie's cheeks as Blair called her 'mom'.

"Stay right there." A solider told them but was ignored by the family trio as they kept walking,

"I paid them $2,000 for food poisoning, they're not getting another cent!" Nate argued, Blair smirking as she saw Parker sneak past them looking like a construction worker again.

"Oh are we going to have to listen to this again?!" Sophie sighed dramatically, just as Nate 'realised' the guards where there.

"Hey! Hey you!" Nate shouted at the smaller of the set of guards, "you, come here!" the guard looked confused for a moment but he and his friends moved closer to the family group, "Where's the Pacific Cruise, the parking lot!?" he demanded, and one of the larger bulkier soldiers who would have scared Blair if she hadn't already seen Elliot in action growled at them,

"You people have to move away from this area." There was a moment of silence where no one spoke before Nate turned to the man, shouting in his face.

"Yeah, well im trying to jackass, just tell me where my car is?"

"yeah, that's right, start a fight why don't you?" Sophie commented and it took everything in Blair not to laugh at the mans face. It was clear he expected the three of them to be a little scared of him and comply. Them not seriously was not what he expected and from the looks of the younger soldiers behind him, was ruining his reputation.

"Ahhhh!" Nate turned yelling in frustration.

"Every time we go on holiday," was all Blair could comment loud enough so one of the soldiers near her could hear, resulting in a chuckle from the man. From the com in her ear she could hear Parker and Hardison talk, though she acted like she was bored as Sophie and Nate started arguing.

"They changed the lock." Parker's voice said

"Just do what you do. I mean, whatever, what you need, ah, uh..." Blair heard Hardison start to stutter and it took everything in her not to ask what was wrong, "Nah. Uh-uh. Stop all that playing. Hell no."

Blair had no clue what was happening but from the sounds of it Parker had a plan for opening the container, and she knew they would find out what probably sooner rather than later. Instead of worrying about Hardison and Parker she tuned back into the conversation Sophie and Nate where having. "After squeezing out three brats for him..."

"Oi!" she couldn't help but add, looking at Sophie. In this case she was one of those fake 'brats' the woman was talking about.

"You know I love you sweetheart." Sophie said in a softer tone before looking back at Nate, "the youngest of which you spent all her collage fund on poker!"

"Ah, here we go again!"

"Wait what?" Blair turned to her dad, seeing a gleam in his eye and trying not to laugh, "I have no collage money?"

"Then he tries to treat us to a holiday," Sophie tells the soldiers, but before she could get any further into whatever backstory she had come up with, more guards had approached them.

"Hey, go back to your post!" the main guard in charge of the new group told the ones who had stopped them, Blair could feel his gaze as he looked over the trio, "what is this? I know you." She glanced up to see the man staring at her father.

"What?" was all her father could say. Thankfully there was an explosion and everyone instantly dove for cover, though as soon as they could recover Blair felt her father pull her to her feet and pull her along and they ran away from the guards. She had to assume that Parker had set the bomb.

"Wh-whoa, where'd they go?" Blair heard a guard scream but she had already jumped onto a small ledge on the escape truck Hardison was driving, knowing the money from inside the container had been put inside it. She wished she could see Jenkins face when he realised the money was gone but she valued her life and not being put in jail a lot more than seeing it.

Blair let out a laugh as she watched Congressman Jenkins stumble over his words on the CNN news report, to their luck the congressman had all but confessed to everything he did and because they were sneaky they managed to get all the money and more for Robert and his fellow mates in the hospital. Blair only looked up from the news report when she felt Elliot nudge her, when she did she was greeted by the familiar bright smile of her now boyfriend Robert as well as his Doctor, who asked the boy, "what is this all about?"

"I don't know, Blair text me saying her dad wanted us down here right away," Robert replied before Blair walked over to him and kissed his cheek as a greeting, "hi you."

"Hi," she replied a blush forming on her cheeks as she did, ignoring the stare she knew was coming from Sophie on the back of her head.

"Hi guys," Nate said, trying not to frown at comfortable Blair was being affectionate with Robert,

"What do you want now?" the Doctor spoke and Blair bit her lip smirking.

"Show 'em" Nate told Hardison, who with a nod unlocked the backdoor of the truck, he, Elliot and Blair had been leaning against earlier. As the door opened it revealed the back of an empty truck

"An empty truck" Blair could hear the confusion in the Doctors voice but she didn't say anything, the smile on Hardison's face was enough for her to keep quiet.

"There is nothing up my sleeves" the coloured man said, showing them that fact, before he climbed into the truck and ripped the painted canvass that was made to look like the back of an empty truck. Behind the canvass where two huge pallets of cash, more than enough for Robert.

"Is this stolen?" the Doctor asked.

"Not anymore." Sophie replied softly,

"What are we supposed to do with it?"

"Pay for Roberts's rehab." Blair said from next to Robert and was rewarded with a small squeeze of her hand from the man in question.

"And some of the other guy's rehabs." Hardison told her, though his eyes was trained on Blair and Robert, happy to see the teen having some normal experiences like romance.

"Pretty much whatever you want." Parker concluded, trying not to sound upset. It was her who had found giving up all the money the hardest but she knew it was for a good cause and the smile Blair had given her when she had agreed to their plan of giving it back to the hospital had almost made up for it.

"Doc, when a cute girl like Blair shows up with a couple million dollars I saw we take the win." Robert joked before looking at Nate, "thank you." He told the man who smiled.

"Corporal." Elliot walked over and shook his hand, "thank you." Was all he said, "I'm gonna steal this girl off you now." And he put his arm around Blair in a brotherly way causing her to laugh as he steered her away from Robert who simply smiled and rolled his eyes.

"That was unnecessary?" Blair told Elliot who smirked.

"It was that or the hurt her and I'll hurt you talk..." he paused as Hardison and Parker caught up, "I think I chose the better option." Blair didn't say anything but she simply hugged Elliot tightly, blinking away sudden tears. Here was a man in her life who cared for her so deeply that he was willing to give her boyfriend the 'big brother talk' something she had never imagined ever happening to her. The small squeeze from Elliot was enough for her to understand that he was grateful to have her too. She knew all of them where but when they showed it in their actions it got to her every time. They really where her family. The two broke apart as Sophie and Nate approached them.

"Anybody who wants to walk away can do it right now." Nate told the group who were all watching Robert and his friends who all where now hopeful for their recovery.

"One more." Elliot spoke softly.

"Maybe two" Hardison agreed as they turned to walk towards their cars.

"I'm in for the long game." Blair told her father who smile at her, she chose this life for him and he knew it. That was enough for him.

"I bought a plant." Parker told Hardison, which was enough for the team to know she was in,

"Nice. Team spirit."

"What does it do?"

"You know, I can't believe you gave all your money away. Didn't you buy yourself anything?" Elliot asked Nate, his arm still around Blair.

"Oh, he bought a car." Blair told the cowboy causing her father to frown at her.

"I bet it's a station wagon." Hardison said causing her to laugh.

"An electric car." Nate decided to impute and Blair smirked knowing the type of car as she was there when he bought it. As the others teased him he shot her a wink. "Just trying to be responsible."

"Responsible? You know it sucks being the good guys, right?"

"You haven't figure it out yet have you?" Nate laughed as he walked ahead of them, "Blair explain it to them." With that he got into a red Tesla Roadster, and started up the engine.

"Just because you're the good guys, doesn't mean you can't have a little fun." Was all she said as she watched her dad drive away in his new baby.

"woo hoo!" Parker commented as the car drove away.

"Oh boy, a midlife crisis." Sophie commented before walking away.

"Absolutely."

"Do you think its cos I got a boyfriend?" Blair asked as her and Elliot walked off too, not before she missed Hardison and Parker agree. Though Parker more in a sense because the rest of them did not because she believed it. They had successfully completed their first job as a team, Blair couldn't be more proud of them or happier. All she had to do was wait and see what else was to come, but she knew that whatever it was her life with these people would never be boring and she loved that.

* * *

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	8. Chapter 8

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 3, The two-horse Job ~ Pt. 1**

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Blair was silent the whole of the trip to Kentucky, her eyes focused on the scenery outside the window of the truck Elliot had got them. Only looking round when Elliot or her father handed her a coffee at every pit stop. Elliot seemed worried about the girl but Nate didn't. He knew his daughter. Since the divorce she hadn't gotten out much, both he and his ex-wife were very controlling over her, not wanting to lose her too. So the girl wasn't so much being quiet than taking in the new place she was visiting, unsure if she would ever see anything like it again. Elliot's frown faded when they pulled into a Stables, seeing Blair's face in the wing mirror turn from blank to interested. They were here because he had been called by an old boss, he was hoping Nate would hear them out and they may have a Job. It was the least he cowboy could do for the family.

"So, home sweet home?" Blair teased when they three clambered out the car, causing the cowboy to laugh a little.

"Something like that." was all he could say as he looked around, Blair could read him like an open book. He felt like the rest of them, they didn't have a home, not a real one, not anymore. Before she could say anything an older man approached them, a smile on his face as he saw Elliot.

"Elliot, is that you?" He called, and the three of them started walking to meet him half way between the car and the stables. Elliot and the man did a manly kind of hug, before the man turned to Nate and shook his hand.

"Willie, this is Mr Nate Ford and his daughter, Blair." As Elliot introduced Blair he threw and arm around her and pulled her to his side. The man watched over the exchange and couldn't help but smile. He knew Elliot would have made a good big brother, it seemed fate had decided to give him the sister he needed in life.

"It's nice to meet you both," Willie told Blair and Nate, "thank you for coming at short notice."

"If we can do anything to help we are happy to." Nate told the man.

"Let's talk in my office." Willie said, and turned to the stables and they followed him. Blair looking in each of the stalls as she did, admiring the horses that stood tall and proud within each.

As soon as the office door shut, her father got straight to the point. "Someone killed the horses?"

"Nine dead." Willie sighed, "One survived. Baltimore, with smoke in his lungs." Blair couldn't help but mirror the frown that had appeared on Elliot's face behind her, not that she knew, causing the old trainer to smile inwardly at the duo. That didn't seem healthy for a race horse. "My family has been training horses since the Civil War. Never had anything like this." Blair's heart went out to the man, and she shot him a sympathetic smile from across his desk.

"But you didn't own any of those horses, right?" Nate asked, trying to understand the whole situation.

"That's not how it works." Elliot spoke up from behind Blair. "Trainers raise them and break them. They race them but they don't own them. It's a rich man's game." Blair could hear the tone in his voice and grabbed his hand trying to calm down and comfort the cowboy all at once.

"Well, I've always dreamed to have my own horses" Willie started and Blair shot a look at him, that didn't sound like the start of a good sentence, "so when this wall-street guy came to town, Mr. Foss." Blair made sure to write down that name on her IPhone immediately, "he said that he wanted to start his own horse franchise. Mr. Ford, he offered me 10% ownership, real ownership. I took the deal, and six months later, the horses aren't running to Foss' liking,"

"He burned nine horses Nate, nine of them, to get his investment back." Elliot added, noting that Nates eyes weren't on Willie or himself but on Blair who was watching Willie with astute attention.

"And he's running around blaming me for the fire. Bad enough I lost my stable, no one will ever hire me again. I'm non insurable."

Nate leaned back in his chair as he thought everything over, taking his eyes off his daughter to look at Willie, "well Foss is up for a 2 million dollar insurance pay out, so we can get you a piece of the money,"

"I don't want a dime of Fosses damn money!" Willie interrupted causing Nate to raise his eyebrows in surprise.

"Wh-Im sorry, what is it that you want?" he asked causing Blair to roll her eyes. What the man wanted was clear.

"They scream. In a fire, Mr. Ford, the horses scream." Willie started but before he could say anything else Blair had interrupted, she had heard enough. They were helping, whether her dad liked it or not.

"You said Foss only has one horse left, this Baltimore?" she asked Willie who nodded once at the girl, "then it is simple. We get you Baltimore, you can take care of him, and we can make sure that Bastard Foss will never set foot in the horse business again." She finished her passionate outburst to see Willie smile and rest his chin on his hands as he took in the girl, before looking at Nate.

"That is a deal I will take."

Nate was taken aback with Blair's outburst but a small smile appeared on his face as he took in his daughters words. Before he could say anything a Blond burst into the office. "You called him?!" it didn't take a genius to know she was referring to Elliot as there was no way in hell she would know Blair's father.

"We need him,"

"No we don't." the argument was an all too familiar one, as Blair glanced at her dad. These two were father and daughter.

"I forgot how much I like these Southern welcomes." Elliot muttered as he leaned on the back of Blair's seat, his comment causing Blair to laugh a little and the girls head whipped round to look at the two, though her gaze was mainly on Elliot.

"Eight years, no phone calls, no letters, you don't earn a homecoming parade!" the woman glared at Elliot.

"How's your husband, Aimee?" Elliot asked and Blair groaned at the look on Aimee's face. He had to go poke the fire a little more.

"Gone." She all but hissed at him, "Seems I have a weakness for men with one foot out the door." With that she left the room, and Blair glanced up at Elliot so many questions at the tip of her tongue not that she was going to ask them. Willie excused himself and followed after his daughter and Nate was quick to ask what the two with Elliot both were thinking.

"So when you said you knew the family, you meant you... knew the family, huh?" this comment caused Elliot to roll his eyes and Blair couldn't help but add to the whole situation.

A small mischievous smile crept onto her face as she asked, "Please tell me you weren't engaged to her?"

"No. I may have given her a promise ring, or..."

"People actually do those?"

"At what?" Nate asked as he watched Blair snort at Elliot's comment.

"So that..."

"Never mind," Nate waved his hand to stop Elliot explaining anymore. "Well, there is no way were going to do this if we have to worry about you being stupid because you're to involved with..."

"I'm not involved." Elliot said quickly, "I'm – I just want to help Willie. Did you hear the guy's story? Scouts honour." With that he lifted his hand as if to prove it, causing Nate to give him a sceptical look before leaving the office.

"Wrong hand," was all Blair could say before she too left the office. They were helping this family, she had decided, even if she had to do all the heavy brain work herself.

Blair sat nursing a coffee that had just been placed in front of her, her head on Elliot's shoulder as Hardison finished the big presentation he did at the start of all their cons. On the trip back to HQ Blair had forwarded Hardison all the information she had taken a note of in Willies office so he could start with his 'Damn Slideshow' as Elliot had started to call it.

"Alan Foss, hedge-fund manager for Smith & Marken in New York. He made $40 million in the last two years. And he picked up some pretty high-cost, high-profile hobbies. Started with high-stakes poker and now owning racehorses"

"I think I have a fever. Can I be excuses from this one" Parker asked from next to Blair who turned her head a little to see the girl. She didn't look ill not in her opinion.

"Oh. Come here. Let me feel your head." Sophie asked, leaning around Nate to trying to feel if Parker was burning up or not.

"No, don't!" Nate said, hitting Sophie's hand away before looking at Parker, "Why do you – what – what's the deal?"

With a shrug Parker said, "I once saw a horse kill a clown," there was a moment of silence as they all tried to figure out if the girl was lying or not, "I just really don't like horses." Parker said and they all turned back to Hardison.

"Moving on." Blair said, and Hardison took this as his que to go back to prepping them,

"Six months, ago, Foss poured a pile of cash into buying all of these horses from Willie's stable. After the fire, whe-"before he could continue Elliot spoke up.

"Massacre, the massacre." Was all he said causing all but Blair to give him a look. This one was a personal con for Elliot and she knew it had struck him hard so she had gone out her way to be there for the man if he needed her.

"Ohh, you are a bit hot on this one." Was the only comment from Sophie.

"Oh-okay, hot, yes!" Hardison started, clearly annoyed no one was paying attention and kept butting into his talks, "Y'all want to take over the briefings?" he looked around the room at them all, each of them trying not to laugh at the man's outburst, "okay, I-I go to a lot of trouble to make these things interesting, have a little something visual for the visual learners and the auditory learners, and y'all i-its just interruption after –" he didn't even get to finish his sentence when Parker interrupted once again. Something on the screen catching her eye,

"Hey, IYS." She turned to look at Nate, as Hardison raised his arms in defeat and sat down, "Your old insurance company holds the policy on Foss' horses"

"Is that gonna be a problem?" Sophie asked, knowing they all with probably the exception of Blair were unsure when Nate had to deal with his old insurance company.

"No, if I can find a way to stick it to my old bosses, even better" Nate replied before taking a drink of his whiskey, signalling to Hardison to continue on with what he was saying.

"Our mission, should we choose to accept it" Hardison said dramatically as he got to his feet, causing a laugh from Parker and Blair, "is to take Foss' last surviving horse and deliver it to Elliot's friend Willie. Meet Baltimore," with a click of his button a picture of a horse appeared on the screens, "three wins, two places, insured for $200,000. Thank you very much, that concludes this briefing. Appreciate your attention. Now, how do we get the damn horse?"

Blair couldn't help but laugh at Hardison's dramatics'. "What do we know about Foss' schedule?" Nate asked.

"According to his online calendar, he's going to a big race at Kensington racetrack this weekend" Hardison said, and Nate looked to Sophie.

"Miss Devereaux, how is your 'southern belle'?" this simply got a smile from Sophie. It seemed there was a plan in place, but Blair knew she would be lookout for this one. At a racecourse a 19 year old would look strange, so she must pretend to be a kid to rich parents and be a lookout for the team.

Lookout was a boring job, thankfully Blair had befriended the boy behind the bar who was the same age she was. Hardison had got the blueprints up for the Turf Club, the racetrack Foss frequented, and Blair and the computer genius had come to the conclusion the bar Blair was currently at was the main hub for all socialising at the racetrack so the perfect place for her to keep lookout for the team if anything was to arise. So that's where she sat, dressed a little fancier than normal having Sophie help her curl her hair and do her make up. Blair was posing as a rich man's daughter who was representing her parents and their horses as they raced. "A large coke zero for my new favourite Millington." The bar man said causing Blair to smile at him as she took it, she had gotten to the track early and had already established a bit of a name for herself, so if anyone questioned her she had people who could say she had been coming there for weeks.

"Thank you!" she smiled before looking around the room just as one Sophie Devereaux walked into the room.

"How ya'll doing?" she asked as she worked the room, smiling from person to person, pushing her hair behind her ear as she made eye contact with Blair. The girl knew that was her que to switch on her ear piece. Copying Sophie's movement Blair brushed her hair behind her ear, so as she did she brushed her finger past the earpiece in her ear and switched it on. Instantly she heard talking and smiled, the small comfort of hearing her friends and her dad was enough to get her to sit up straighter and watch as Foss stood at the bar near her, Sophie making a beeline to the small gap between him and Blair.

"Now, if I wanted a glass of ice, I would have ordered that, okay? So try again, thanks." Foss spoke in a condescending tone to Blair's new bar friend, causing the boy to shoot her an annoyed look as he turned to make Foss a new drink.

"And a bourbon, straight." Sophie spoke up, as she squeezed in between Foss and Blair, causing the man to turn to her and look her up and down. It was clear he was impressed with what he had heard and what he saw.

"Wow. I like when a woman knows how to order a drink" Foss said to Sophie who shot him a flirty smile.

"Hmm." Sophie said as she eyed him up and down, before holding out her hand for him to shake, "Katherine-Beth Lovery, but you can call me Kitty,"

"Alan Foss, and you can call me whatever you want." Foss replied instantly taking her hand, "so, are you here for business or pleasure?" that line caused Blair to gag a little on her drink, causing her bartender friend to shot her a smirk. It was clear he thought the same thing as she did.

"A little of both," Sophie said, taking the man's attempt at flirting in her stride and as the amazing grifter that she was using it against him, "I'm a bloodstock agent. You in the market for a horse?"

"Got anything fast?" he asked and Sophie shook her head as she placed her hands on his jacket pocket, as she spoke she lifted his wallet and passed it to Blair.

"I don't deal with sprinters, no, no, no. I like mine to finish the mile." She passed him her business card and he glanced down at it. Blair knew it was bullshit but that wasn't the issue, he needed to be distracted as she scanned his card with a strip reader she had tucked away in her bag. Knowing whatever information went on it would go straight to Parker who was watching them from the balcony above, pretending to be on her phone.

"I-I'm sorry." Foss started as he read the name on the car, Blair passing back his wallet to Sophie so the woman could put it back when she could, "I don't really recognise the last name. What owners have you worked with?"

"I brokered the deal for the last two derby winners." Sophie said, her confidence made her story believable, "it's good for business, but I am a little shy of publicity." In their ears Parker spoke softly,

"He's got a $50,000 limit." Blair couldn't help but raise her eyebrows, that was a lot of money to have on a card, "he bet on Kentucky Thunder." She added.

Without missing a beat Sophie added, "in fact, one of the horses racing today was my sale. Kentucky Thunder."

Foss seemed to like this news and he took a drink with a smile on his face before saying, "I hear he's a great horse. I have a couple thousand in spare change on him."

"Well, that is my kind of spare change." Sophie flirted, before accepting his arm to go watch the game.

Blair knew she too had to leave to watch the game so not to ruin her cover, and brushed down her dress before following the two but making sure to keep her distance. Her main job was over, and Hardison whispered the horse (Starshine) which was the one her 'family' owned, saying that maybe for her covers sake she go visit it while the poker game was playing. Blair didn't agree to anything until she knew Foss was going to the game. If he went then they would have Baltimore. Thankfully Sophie had sweet talked him into going to the game, so Blair felt silently confident, so much so she actually switched off her com and put it into her bag. She didn't need it to see a horse.

Once the race was over, Blair walked down to the onsite stables. After being pointed to the right stall Blair found herself standing with a pure white horse, a smile on her face as she kissed the snout of the beast. "Hello beautiful, you did wonderful today." she whispered to the horse, receiving a soft blow of air in her face as a response causing her to smile brightly.

" You really seem to love Starshine" a male voice spoke from behind her, causing Blair to roll her eyes a little not turning around as she stroked the horse fondly.

"She is a beautiful horse, and extremely talented too." Blair spoke, remembering her cover for the day, "I should know, she is my family's horse,"

"Ah," was all she got as a response. Blair decided to ignore whomever was standing behind her and looked at the trainer of Starshine, who had come into the stall with her.

"I think she deserves a bit of a treat, but nothing that would ruin her training obviously." She said, causing the girl to smile at Blair.

"Perhaps a long country trek would be nice for her."

"That sounds perfect," turning to look at the horse again, Blair asked, "what do you think girl?" the horse whinnied loudly causing Blair and the trainer to laugh. It seemed Starshine liked her treat.

"I didn't catch your name miss," the male voice once again and Blair groaned a little turning as she said,

"I didn't throw... it." Blair paused as she finally saw the face of the boy talking to her. She knew the boy behind the voice, though she hadn't seen him in over 5 years. Time had befitted him well, his mischievous smile was currently in a state of shock, his light brown, almost blonde, hair was styled in an effortless wind swept look, his brown eyes sweeping over Blair as if shocked she was the one standing before him. "Sterling." Was all Blair could say, the contempt and annoyance clearly heard in her voice.

"Ford." Zach Sterling finally spoke.

Blair turned and said goodbye to the trainer before moving past Zach to head back to the racetrack. Noting the dark sky already, hoping Elliot or Hardison were in the parking lot so she could escape quickly. "Ford, wait up!" She heard Zach rush after her, grabbing her arm just as she reached the main bar area causing her to turn. "What are you doing here?" Blair raised her eyebrow waiting for him to compute what she knew he had known the moment he saw her here. The boy was as smart as his dad. He knew why she was here, "you are here with your dad."

"Bingo." Was all Blair could mutter, before frowning, "and if you're here, that means your dad is here." She looked over his features to see if what she had said was true, causing her to let out a laugh, "Foss, the fire, don't tell me your dad got my dad's old job!" Once again Zach didn't deny what she had said, causing her to smirk but her smirk fell when Zach started talking.

"You know he is going after the trainer for the fire, some dude called... William, wally..."

"Willie, Willie Martain" Blair gasped and it was Zach's turn to smirk, knowing he had gotten under the girls skin. "He is an innocent man." Blair demanded.

"You shouldn't know, they don't care. They just want someone to pay." Blair couldn't help but let out a frustrated groan. She needed to talk to her father, and soon. This was no longer going as planned.

"You know, the day my dad quit his job I thought I had seen the last of you and your father." Blair all but growled, but the boy wasn't surprised or seemed shocked instead he leaned forward and kissed her cheek, appearing as if he was her sweetheart saying goodbye, making sure to whisper in her ear,

"Now we both know we will never be free of each other, Blair. There is too much history between us." with that he left an angry (but to anyone else she looked flustered) Blair standing in the middle of the Bar at the racetrack.

* * *

 **tell me your thoughts,**

 **Love**

 **Sazzacubz 13 xx**

 ***This is on wattpad too***


	9. Chapter 9

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 3, The two-horse Job ~ Pt. 2**

* * *

Blair was not fully awake when they all met the next morning at the race track, though she was all done up pretending to be Amber Millington once again as they didn't know who would see her around so it was better she was dressed and ready to go. Hardison had promised to bring her a coffee so she stood in silence with Sophie and her dad, she knew they were discussing something but she wasn't paying attention to anything either of them where saying. Parker was asking about Sterling and they had all come to the agreement that he was better than Nate, much to her dad's stuttering displeasure. Hardison approached them and handed Blair, who was acting as if she was not with them, a large coffee. Smirking as he watched her sniff the air before turning to face him, as if she could smell the liquid she was addicted too. "Blair?" Nate asked, turning to look at her just as she grabbed the coffee from Hardison and took a sip gratefully, causing the man to laugh loudly.

"Too much Monday, not enough coffee" Blair muttered, but they were all silent enough to hear the comment, causing a smile to break out on all of their faces. Blair had a one track mind, even with the looming threat of both Sterling men she was confident enough in the team to not worry about it, her priority being her Coffee. Blinking Blair seemed to realise all eyes were still on her, "what did you say again?" she asked, trying to recall at all what her dad had supposedly asked her.

"Elliot said something about James Sterling not being our only problem?" Nate prompted, knowing Blair was involved and Elliot was trying to protect her from something. He was the one to take her back to the hotel last night.

Blair shot Elliot a grateful smile, glad he hadn't told her dad about Zach Sterling's appearance. It was easier they were in public to tell him about Sterling's mini-me waltzing around, "So, you know how I'm kinda helping you out. Dad and daughter style" she started, taking a sip of her coffee as her dad nodded his eyebrows scrunching together as he tried to figure out where Blair was going with her sentence, "well... Zach Sterling is here, doing the same thing with his dad. But father and son bonding not father and daughter. Duh."

"Oh, okay." Was all Nate said, before turning to the team, Blair held up her hand behind him and slowly dropped her fingers in a count down from 5. Just as she had dropped her last finger Nate turned back to face her as he finally computed what she had said. "Wait, What? That boy is around and knows you are here!" he all but exploded. He was protective of Blair around boys, but there was something about Zach that had always made him keep a close eye on him. Probably because he knew the boy was one of the few people in the world who could keep up with Blair mentally as well as push her to her limits. If anyone could even possibly be her so called 'perfect match' Zach was a close as it got.

Blair groaned at his response and nodded her head, "so whatever we are dealing with, I will say I need to be a Zach distraction pawn. His dad will ask him to do that anyway, so we may as well use that to our advantage." Blair looked at Sophie and begged her with her eyes to distract her father, and the woman smiled and quickly brought the conversation back to the task at hand, but Blair knew the moment they could be alone she would be asking her about Zach Sterling and everything that involved.

"What we need to do," Sophie said, causing everyone to look at her, "is get Willie that horse back and then get out of here, very, very quickly"

"it's too late for that" Blair commented before she could stop herself, and quickly covered her mouth as she got looks from Elliot and Parker. Nate however understood what Blair was talking about. She knew Sterling almost as well as he did, now not one but two of them knew they were here they were going to go out their way to try to mess up their plans.

"Sterling thinks that I am trying to get my job back," Nate explained, "he doesn't care about the claim anymore. He is just gonna mess with anything I do, which he will try to find out via Zach from Blair." He shot Blair a look but she shrugged, she knew that would be his plan, "if I try to keep Baltimore for myself, he's gonna try to get Baltimore back for Foss. If I give Willie the horse, Willie becomes the target, and believe me, you don't want to be, you know, the target of a Sterling." Nate concluded with a sigh.

"I thought we could get away from Sterling," Sophie commented softly, almost wistfully as if the idea of it all was a dream causing Blair to frown. Her team better not be giving up.

"Great!" Elliot added, "You're saying Willie loses the horse and Foss stays in business? Nice!" yes her team had given up, just because of that egotistical bastard called Sterling.

"No!" Blair spoke, causing all heads to turn to her. If her dad wasn't going to lead this one, she was until he got his mojo back, "we are smarter than both Sterling's and I think I know a way we can tackle both problems... I think" she added just to make sure they knew her plan was not concrete. "Sophie, you need to get Foss back here, Parker, Hardison you guys need to keep a tap on James Sterling, run interference all that. Elliot, you need to find my dad a stable." Nate seemed to have cottoned onto Blair's wavelength but he knew she would bring him up to speed as soon as she could.

"What about you, B?" Parker asked, causing Blair to smirk and twirl a strand of hair around her finger in a flirty sort of way.

"Me? I'm going to play distraction"

Blair took her seat in front of the bar again, being the mastermind of a plan as well as playing distraction meant a lot of waiting around, sitting and looking pretty. Thankfully Hardison and Parker were in the parking lot, she had them in her ear on com's but it was her dad she was worried about. They didn't have long to go over her rough plan, in fact they had the length of one loud argument over the phone which Elliot was having to discuss details. He seemed to somewhat understand where she was going with the plan, and she knew he would do anything to up Sterling at this point.

"Where the hell are they?" Blair as pulled out of her worried thoughts by Parker over the com's. Just as she caught the attention of the boy behind the bar, thankfully the same one as yesterday, she heard Hardison say.

"Incoming, Little Miss"

Blair had to stop her self-nodding at Hardison's heads up that Zach was on his way in to the building, thankfully she did stop herself so she didn't appear to look like a weirdo nodding at the bar to nobody. Instead she focused on what Parker was saying, "And... Large Sterling?"

"Electronic locks, electronic throttle, power steering, keyless entry..." Hardison listed of in Blair's ear as she took a sip of her coke, ignoring her phone as it buzzed once again to tell her she had gotten a text, "you know what runs all that?"

"Computers?" Parker's voice asked in Blair's ear and the girl could see Hardison's smile in her mind as the man instantly replied,

"Oh, yeah."

Blair smiled as she went to tuck some hair behind her ear, switching off her com as she did. Whatever Parker and Hardison were up too to mess with James Sterling she was sure they would be fine, part of her wished Sterling good luck. Just as she slipped her com into her small purse, taking out her phone to make it look like there was a reason for her to be opening her bag, a figure sat down on the empty seat next to her. Blair knew instantly who it was, she didn't need to look to her left to know it was Zach. From the way he sat, to the leather jacket he wore, to the musky smell that Blair knew only belonged to Zach she knew. "Two days in a row Ford, one would think you were up to something."

"Sterling, _Jr."_ Blair couldn't help but add the last bit smiling as she saw Zach's fist clench a little at her word, she turned in her chair to look at Zach, crossing her legs and nodding to the bar man in such a way to say getting her and Zach a drink. Once the bar man was busy at the other end of the bar Blair decided to address the other part of Zach's greeting, "now Zach, what could little old me get up too?"

Finally Zach turned to look at her, mirroring the smirk on the girls face. He didn't say anything as the bar man placed a large coke in front of both him and Blair, raising an eyebrow as if to ask 'no alcohol Blair?' Not saying anything Blair squinted her eyes as a reply, trying to get across 'of course not I am underage!' all this did was cause Zach's face to break out into a wise grin, not a smirk but a wide unapologetic smile at Blair's scrunched up look as she tried to tell him off with her eyes. This was his childhood frenemy, this girl who was addicted to coffee, had a laugh like a child and a heart that was big enough to forgive anyone. It was in that moment he realised how much he had missed her in his life since her dad stopped working for I.Y.S Insurance. Instead of saying anything he leant forward and tucked a strand of hair behind Blair's ear, both of them knew it was him checking if she was on coms but like the night before to an outsider it would never have appeared as anything other than a lover's affectionate gesture. There was a sigh from the bottom of the bar, and both Blair and Zach in one unified movement, turned to look down to see an elderly woman who was looking at them both with a wistful gaze. Upon seeing them notice her she smiled and spoke, "it's nice to see love isnt dead." Causing both Zach and Blair to blush at her comment.

"Yes, love. We are very much in love." Blair smiled at her, reaching her hand up to Zach which was still by her ear, pulling it down and entwining their fingers, "isnt that right _honey-boo_?" the sarcasm dripped from her words but thankfully the woman didn't realise it.

Zach turned towards Blair, a surprised look in his eyes though the rest of his features remained in their normal perfect smile. It took a second before he seemed to understand the situation both Blair and he had just been presented. One Blair had taken willingly. A couple in love, one of which who had already established herself as a daughter of one of the horse owners, would not stand out by being together, especially with them both being 19 and 20 they did look a little out of place in the older crowd. "Oh yes, _shoonticums_ " Zach spoke finally, sarcasm dripping from his words too as he tried not to laugh at Blair's attempt to not flinch as she heard the stupid nickname given to her. Thankfully before either of them had to do much more to 'prove their love' the old woman had gotten up from the bar and had wandered out the room towards the stands at the racetrack, giving them one more wistful smile before doing so.

Blair and Zach stared at each other for a moment, neither of them knowing what to do as they sat there with their fingers intertwined as they sat at the bar. Thankfully a distraction came in the form of Blair's phone, which caused both Blair and Zach to glance down at the iPhone that was on the bar. For the first time Blair was so glad one of her and Hardison's late night sugar high 'bright ideas' had happened as instead of the name 'Sophie Devereaux' coming up the words 'Soon to be Step-mom' popped up causing Blair to smile. "I think you will understand why I have to take this..." She told Zach, causing the boy to glance at the name and pull a face before nodding his head.

"Go ahead," was all he could mutter causing Blair to get to her feet as she put the phone to her ear.

"Hey, what's wrong?" she asked, moving towards the glass doors the lead to the stands as she heard the voiced of her dad and Sophie talking, she guessed the meeting with Foss didn't go well.

"So Foss isn't out of the horse business, he is bringing in more money and partners now. Oh and I think Elliot and the Aimee girl are having a moment like you expected" Sophie summarized quickly and Blair heard her dad in the background groan and mutter something along the lines of,

"You had to call Blair!"

"We are out of ideas, we need another brain. Plus this is her plan" she heard Sophie tell her father causing the man to shut up. "Are you sure this isnt about you two sticking it to the Sterling Men? Because I will tell you now it is not worth putting the rest of us at risk." Sophie told the Father - Daughter duo causing Blair to roll her eyes at the comment even if she knew the woman couldn't see her.

"Sophie, I promise you it's not that." she said, and she could see her father in her mind's eye nodding his head in agreement.

"Sterling is gonna do everything in his power to take us down. And he is gonna take Willie with him, so w-we need to come up with a plan that he doesn't see a mile away with a blindfold on." Nate sighed, and Blair frowned as she tried to rake her brain for some kind of plan. As she did this she heard the familiar rambles of Parker and Hardison having a conversation which she ignored until she heard Hardison say "Wilbur loved Mister Ed, he loved him like a second cousins twice removed or something"

"Oh my god that's it!" Blair all but shouted down the phone, turning to look around the almost empty bar to see Zach and the Bar tender behind the bar look over from their conversation to glace at her outburst. She gave them a small smile before turning back and repeating once again in a calmer voice, "Dad that's it!"

"What? A talking horse?" Sophie asked the girl over the phone, but thankfully Nate Ford understood what his daughter was talking about.

"the fact you know about this scares me a little," the man commented to his daughter before informing the people in the room with him, "she is talking about the Lost Heir scam."

"What is that?" Hardison asked,

"It is a Classic European scam." Sophie started to explain, "You pose as a long-lost descendant of the royal family, and when you pull it off, well, the payoffs are really good, loads of parties, money, and ... a fabulous Faberge egg"

"What does that have to do with horses, B?" Parker asked as all of them decided to not comment on the wistful way Sophie described the scam.

"With horses, it's all to do with bloodlines" Blair explained simply

"So the lost heir of the royal equine family is gonna be worth millions" Sophie said as she finally realised what the Fords were posing they do. It was out there sure, but with both Sterling's lurking around out there was their safest bet.

"We are gonna sell this guy the greatest horse that never lived" Nate smirked. Before Blair could laugh at her father's comment, she felt someone come up behind her.

" _Shoonticums_ ," the familiar voice of Zach came from behind her and she knew she had to quickly hang up,

" _shoonticums?"_ Hardison repeated down the phone, all of them down the phone having heard Zach, "What exactly are you doing to play distraction? Remember you have a boyfriend Blair!"

"By mom, yes I will phone dad and talk to him about fixing that painting for you" Blair smiled down the phone before hanging up. Turning to look at Zach with her eyebrows raised expectantly, "Yes _Honey-Boo_?"

"Are you up for a walk?" he asked, offering her his arm. Blair glanced down at her phone to see yet another text from Robert appearing as a notification. Yes she had a boyfriend but Zach was pretending as much as she was, her friends had nothing to worry about. With a smile she looped her arm in Zach's hoping her friends would keep her in the loop as much as they could.

Zach left Blair around noon, as he said his father had something he needed to do and that was Zach's ride. She was happy enough with the fake information she had passed him, making sure to keep him from the entrance of the building as she saw her friends come in at different times as not to draw attention to themselves. The moment her old childhood frenemy had left Blair turned on her heel and easily found the table her father, Hardison and Parker where seated at. Sitting between the two men, her father instantly pushed a large black coffee in front of the girl, "I think you need this" was his only comment which caused her to smile gratefully at him as Elliot and Sophie reached their table. There was no moment of greeting or anything as Nate dove straight into the plan he had been forming, "We're using Baltimore as the lost heir."

"I hacked into the IFHA website, that's the database with all the horses' bloodlines" Hardison told them all as he pulled out his laptop to show them his work, "Now, all that information is linked on numbers to microchips in the horse's neck. Now, we'll link Baltimore's microchip number to a fake horse with a great bloodline, then we'll disguise the white stripe on his face with some paint" Hardison finished the sentence by throwing his arms in the air as if he had no clue how they would disguise that part of Baltimore.

"No, no, it's not gonna work." Elliot interjected almost immediately, "His lungs are still messed up from the fire"

"But he can still run right?" Blair asked, causing Elliot to shake his head sadly at her. He knew out of all the team she was the one who wanted to do right by Baltimore and Willie.

"He can run, but Foss is gonna see how slow he is. That paint thing, that's not gonna hold up if he gets close enough to the scan chip"

"uh... Well, we need to find a horse that can run like a champion" Nate said, putting his chin on his fingers as he tried to think of a horse.

"What about that horse from the other day," Hardison said not looking up from his laptop, "Kentucky Fried Chicken?"

"Kentucky Thunder?" Elliot asked annoyance clearly heard in his voice but none of them acknowledged it as whenever the man spoke to the computer guy there was always a touch of annoyance heard in his voice.

"That's what I said."

"Oh, we steal an actual championship racehorse in order to fake another championship racehorse" Nate stated simply, "oh, I like it." Blair couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at her father's expression and how simple he stated that, giving Sophie an uneasy look. This was going to be an interesting task in hand.

Blair, pretending to be Amber Millington, the next day found herself hobbling a little (due to the ridiculous shoes Sophie had presented her this morning so she 'looked the part') both her and Sophie made their way into the Stable Yard, "you will find Todd around here, Lina." Blair said in her girly accent with a bright smile that Sophie happily returned. Turning to see a man who looked up at the use of his name.

"Miss Millington?"

"Morning Todd." Blair nodded her head, as Sophie took over.

"I'm Lina Watters, Todd Hazen, right? Kentucky Thunder's trainer?"

"Yes, can I help you with something? Miss Millington whats going on?" Todd asked looking from Sophie to Blair who pretended to look confused.

"Did you not get the memo?" she asked and Todd shook his head just as Sophie told him.

"Well, we're all set."

"Set?"

"Well, you are ready for the interview, aren't you?" Sophie asked, looking from Todd to Blair, "You said he was told?"

"Daddy said he phone you about it Todd, are you sure you didn't get any messages? We set up an interview for you and Kentucky in Sports Illustrated" Blair turned to face the man, just as he pulled out his phone. Whatever hacking Hardison did, when Todd opened his phone all three of them could see the messages after messages that where there.

"Oh damn it!"

"I did say my Daddy said he was going to phone you." Blair said with a sympathetic smile, before turning to Sophie.

"So the reporter is gonna be at the turf club any second now." Sophie told Todd causing the man to nod at her, "Thank you. Um, listen, if hes not there, please wait for him for half an hour or so..."

"You can have lunch, it's on the Millington's" Blair added with a bright smile causing him to return it with a nod of his head. One thing she had learned over her days at the club was the workers had horrible lunches so Todd today would have a good one if someone else was paying. As the man left, Sophie as his side, Blair waited for Elliot to enter the stables and get Kentucky Thunder.

Blair stood next to her father, pretending to look bored as Sophie talked to a random Asian couple Hardison had picked from the airport an hour a go. "Have you seen any sign of Sterling?" Nate asked Hardison who was leaning on the white fence of the paddock Kentucky Thunder was currently in with a jockey. She had been handed a com by her dad when she led the horse over to the paddock and was now fanning herself as she watched the jock get onto the horse.

"No, all clear" Hardison answered Nate.

"Parker?" Nate asked, looking towards the large Grand Stand where Parker was in.

"Nope." The girl answered. Blair turned her head knowing her dad was going to ask her next and shook her head at him before the words could even leave his mouth, causing him to let out an annoyed sigh before he focused his gaze on the couple with Sophie.

"What about these guys? Any trouble getting them here?" he asked causing Hardison to let out a groan of annoyance much like the one Nate had made a few moments ago and shake his head,

"Well, the little one has a bladder the size of a peanut. She had to go to the bathroom three times on the way here and once when we got here." This annoying comment caused Blair to let out a giggle.

In their ears all of them heard Elliot planting the seed they needed and Nate nodded towards Blair. She knew what her father wanted to do. As she could in the stupid heels Sophie had put her in she made her way towards the jockey who winked at her as she approached.

"Miss Millington I'm guessing?" he asked causing Blair to smiled and nod,

"Do you mind if we could time Kentucky now?" she asked and the man nodded his helmet before mounting the horse.

"Of course." Was the response she got. She turned to her dad and nodded her head just as he pulled out a stop watch. It was going to be a long day she knew it.

Blair was stood pretended to be bored rich daughter once again on her phone looking over 'her horse' in the paddock as Elliot pulled up with Foss, Elliot getting a scanner out and scanning Kentucky as he trained, "Can you get the internet on your phone, Mr. Foss?"

"Yes" the man said pulling out his phone.

"Pull up the IFHA website, I'll tell you why. Every thoroughbred worldwide has their bloodlines registered there." Showing him the scanner Elliot continued, "Punch in that number right there, that'll give you the bloodlines of this horse."

"Native Dancer, war admiral, secretariat. You got to be – this horse is a Kennedy!" Foss read of the website causing Blair to smirk a little not looking up from the screen of her phone where she was texting Robert. In her ear she heard her father talking about Foss's investors and then telling Sophie to get in there.

Before she could react to anything a pair of arms wound themselves around her waist causing her to jump a little, though the familiar teasing "Ford..." told her instantly who's arms where now around her. Turning in the arms she looked up at the smiling face of Zach Sterling and gave him a smile, knowing that them being in love was their cover at the moment.

"Sterling!" she replied, glancing out the corner of her eye to see Sophie leading Foss and the couple away from the two teenagers so neither of them could hear the conversation. Elliot however was stood glaring at Zach.

"Oh one of your team doesn't look happy to see me." Zach whispered in her ear, and to play her part Blair let out a fake laugh throwing her head back a little before looking at him.

"Trust me, he could crush you in two and not break a sweat." She said as she brushed down his collar, looking up at him just to see him glace at Elliot an gulp a little.

"How about I get you a drink?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea Zach." With that she took his arm and let him lead her back to the grand stand. Hoping that everything went well between Foss and Sophie knowing she had no way of finding out until that evening.

* * *

 **what do you think of Zach and Blair, dont worry she is still very much with Robert but i like the idea of as much as Nate as a Sterling to deal with Blair has one too :P**

 **tell me your thoughts,**

 **Love**

 **Sazzacubz 13 xx**

 ***This is on wattpad too***


	10. Chapter 10

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 3, The two-horse Job ~ Pt. 3**

* * *

Though the team was successful in fooling Foss, the sudden appearance of the Sterling's was not as helpful. It seemed that James Sterling managed to get his hands on the camera from the two Chinese tourists that Hardison had nicked from the airport and all but confronted Nate at his 'office' at the stables. However there wasn't much of an argument but that didn't mean there wasn't any threatening. Which was now how the team were back in the paddock. Blair was praying that this con would be over so she wouldn't have to wear a dress or heels ever again, as she leaned on Parker as her feet hurt, as some form of comfort to the teen Parker was playing with her hair.

"There is no way to take the numbers on that chip" Hardison informed them,

"You faked it before" Nate said, but Hardison shook his head.

"no, no, no." Hardison told Nate with a shake of his finger causing Blair to smirk a little as she watched the scene play out, "I fakes the information on the database. Okay, now, when Foss scans that chip, if its not the same number that showed up before—"

"Oh, we're screwed!" Parker finally decided to stop the ramble of tech they all knew was about to come out of Hardison's mouth, however she didn't look up from the intricate hair style she was making in Blair's hair.

"Basically." Hardison nodded towards the two girls, Blair noticing his stressed expression softening a little as he looked at the two girls before he turned back to her dad, "Now, either we cut the chip out of the horse and insert it into another one –"

"Or we deliver Kentucky Thunder" Sophie interrupted. Talking for the first time since they had all entered the office room in the stables.

"No, we're not a library. We cant just take in horses in and out as we like" Nate sighed, resting his neck on his hands as he lent on the office table. Blair couldn't help but think he looked rather comfortable behind the desk, but before she could say anything the door was opened and Elliot and Aimee walked in. The look between Sophie, Blair and Parker was missed by all the men in the room, but from the way Aimee fidgeted as Elliot spoke Blair knew she saw what the girls all were thinking. However that was not important, the information coming from the cowboy's mouth was,

"Kentucky Thunder is gone."

"What!" Blair and Nate spoke in unison, their heads wiping towards the man at the door.

"Racing?" Sophie couldn't help but ask the first thought to them all.

"Worse." Aimee spoke up softy for the first time, looking around the room of people who was helping her and her father, "stud farm."

"Oh." Was all Nate could say, causing Blair to shoot him an annoyed glance as Hardison started to pace and have more of an appropriate reaction to that information,

"No, no, no, no, no"

"All right," Nate said after glancing in Blair's direction, taking in the annoyed gaze from his blood. "We're not gonna get Foss to write as $12 million check for an empty horse trailer. This doesn't work without Kentucky Thunder, so we are gonna stall."

"No." Elliot said instantly, causing Nate and Blair to turn their heads towards him. Both of them with her eyebrows raised in shock.

"What do you mean, no?" Nate asked for both of them.

"The Sterlings are gonna catch on." Elliot stated crossing his arms as he looked around the room at them all. Blair looking to Sophie and a silent conversation happening between them as the man kept talking. "Foss is gonna get cold feet, man. No. we have chance. We got to get this horse."

As he finished Blair had gotten to her feet and had pulled Aimee from the room, Parker on her heels. She knew the look on her dads face and she didn't think the girl deserved to deal with that anger from the man. "Aimee, as a daughter of someone who owns horses what would I know?" she asked as an excuse and allowed the woman to smile at her before leading her to a stall to tell her all about the beautiful beast inside.

Blair didn't think she would be so happy to be sat inside of the Truck as she was in that moment, but being in the small truck with Parker, Hardison, Elliot and Aimee was not the enjoyable thing. No, the reason she was so happy was for the first time since starting the stupid horse con Blair was finally allowed to wear trousers, trainers, her normal make up and a pony tail. She felt herself again, bar the t-shirt that claimed she was a handler for the same stables as Aimee and Elliot but she would take that cover if it meant no more heels. She leaned back and placed her feet in Elliot's lap, her head on her hands as she watched Elliot and Aimee refuse to make eye contact. She knew she could tease the man but not yet, she wasn't sure her limits with him just yet.

"Can you hack it?" Parker asked, as she looked at Kentucky Thunders stable via Hardison's Laptop causing the man to raise his eyebrows at her.

"Hack a lock?" this comment caused a bubble of a giggle burst from Blair, causing the first smile to appear on Elliot's face, "You still really don't understand what I do, do you?" he asked the blonde, who shrugged.

"Parker, you are gonna have to go through the air duct, drop down and let us in." Elliot said finally, knowing this was the only plan.

"But the horses are in there." Parker whispered fearfully. Blair's heart broke a little for the girl, but she didn't know how to pick locks so she couldn't do this for her.

"No, no, no," it seemed Aimee felt for the girl too as she muttered about a back room they could use, but was stopped as Elliot placed a hand on her arm.

His gaze was on Parkers as he said, "We need you to do this. I need you to do this. Please." Blair saw Parker look back at the laptop screen and visibly gulp in fear.

It was a total of 20 minutes later before Parker finally was in the air dent, muttering bitterly the whole time, which it seemed only Blair was finding the humour in as everyone else was too bothered about how serious the situation was. "Looks like Parker's gonna have to crawl through the air duct again. God forbid anyone else would have to learn how to freakin' crawl on their stomach through a tiny space. It's not rocket science, people."

"Parker, you realise that we can still hear you?" Elliot told the girl over his own com and the silence that followed caused Blair to burst out laughing. She could see Parker in her minds eye pause her crawl and scowl having forgotten that the team could hear her.

"P, you know I would crawl through there but I don't know how to pick the lock. I'd just be stuck in there with a horse that's why you had to go" She told the girl as she wiped the tears from her eyes, not looking Hardison in the eye knowing he was smirking at Parker and Blair's reaction to the whole thing.

"Oh. Well... I guess that's fine." Was all parker could say before they heard a thump sound and they all assumed Parker had found her way into the back room, "Aimee... I've found Kentucky Thunder. He's a really, really big horse." The smiles that appeared on everyone's faces at the young girl's laughter turned into serious expressions.

The blonde next to Elliot swore as she shook her head, "Oh, I'm so sorry. Sometimes they keep him in there before he gets teased."

"I don't want to be in a stall with a horse that's about to be teased!" Parker hissed and that's all it took for Blair to all but leap over Elliot and run from the van. She hadn't been seen in this outfit, she knew she was blending some-what with the other stable hands and honestly that was the least of her worries as she barged from the truck. All she could think about was they had just put Parker in a position were she was left in a small room with an animal she was scared off. An animal that could easily break a bone of the girls if kicked wrong.

"Blair!" she heard Elliot shout as the trio she had left got up to follow after her, "we're running out of time Parker," Elliot told the woman over com's as they ran after Blair.

"Oh my god!" Parker muttered softly, and Blair ran into the stable Aisle, groaning as she realised the storage room was about as far away as possible.

"I'm coming P!" Blair muttered, sprinting to the end. Pushing off the wooden bar on the front of the door she knew Parker and Kentucky Thunder were in just as the Blonde woman opened the door.

Both Parker and Blair looked at one another before Blair launched herself at Parker, "I'm so glad you are okay." She whispered, feeling Parker tap her back and probably give Hardison, Elliot and Aimee an odd look as she tried to figure out why the teenager was hugging her.

"You're not dead, good." Hardison said to Parker as Aimee and Elliot moved past the girls to get the horse ready for travel.

"Don't be silly. Horses are much less murderous than I originally thought." Parker told the two causing Blair to roll her eyes smiling. Oh how she loved how odd her daily life was now.

Blair sat on a chair in her dad's 'office' her feet on the desk, Blair biting she concentrated on the origami lily she was making, they both were waiting for their part in the con. As the other's had put Kentucky Thunder into a trailer to travel with him, Hardison had thrown the keys to their old faithful truck and Blair had made sure to move it from sight. Nate had a smirk on his face as he looked over his daughter, clearly happy to be out of dresses and heels. He hadn't seen her concentrating on the paper art form in a few years and couldn't help but ask, "What's with the lily?"

Blair looked up at him with a smirk, "inside joke." Was all she said, knowing Nate wouldn't be happy with that answer but tough, a girl was allowed some secrets in her life. Her dad had his own Sterling to deal with, she knew Zach Sterling would know exactly what the lily meant when he found it.

Nate sighed and leant back in the chair he sat. His daughter was as stubborn as he was, there was no point trying to get the information from her until she was ready to tell him. Thankfully a distraction came in the form of Sophie who sauntered into the office, smiling when she saw Blair sat in front of her. "Blair, I didn't know you arrived already."

"Hey Sophie, I saw you with Foss after I hid the truck so I thought better than mucking up the con by saying hi."

The woman nodded and turned to look at Nate who instantly asked, "Did you get him turned around enough?"

"I think so. He doesn't seem that familiar with the stables."

"Okay," with that Nate tapped on his com's to talk to the group at large, "Foss is in place. Where are you?"

"We're close any minute now." Elliot came from inside their heads.

"Listen," Nate said seriously, his chin resting on his fingers, "the haulers gonna be here in five minutes. If youre not here, Foss is gonna open up an empty stall and there'll be no lost heir."

"I said we'll be there!"

"God he is grumpy," Blair muttered, forgetting she was on com's. "He needs to get laid, badly."

This caused a round of laughter from Hardison and Parker as well as a grumpy grumble from Elliot. Blair looked up and went bright red as she realised she spoken out loud. Thankfully her dad was too busy barking out more instructions to comment, "Hardison, show me what you're looking at."

Blair groaned as her phone started ringing, a facetime from Hardison, and she passed over her phone to her father as she got to her feet. "I'll go look busy." Was all she said as she twirled the Origami lily in her fingers before leaving, having her own plan in mind. she rushed from the office, and moved to the stall nearest the entrance door to the stables, she had to look busy while she waited. Thankfully the stall didn't have a horse in it, so she started to work to make it look like she was prepping the stall for a horse, trying not to laugh at the comments Hardison and Parker were making about them going to Jail. From the sounds of things there had been some kind of blockage on the road and Elliot had saddled up the horse and decided to just ride him back to the stables.

Blair looked up as she heard the gallop of a horse, and rushed out to let Elliot into the stables just as the Hauler pulled up in his car. Elliot winked at Blair as she started to act like a handler at the stable, "Pony express is never late boss" Elliot told Nate who frowned a little.

"okay, we're back on" was all he said as Blair lead Kentucky Thunder towards the Stable Yard with Elliot on his back.

Sophie, Foss and the Hauler were already there when the two approached. "Mr. Foss," Elliot spoke as he dismounted, "I got something you might want to take a look at."

"Yeah, I figured you would." He told Elliot as he handed the man a scanner, Blair kept busy calming the horse and trying not to look Foss in the eye, "you might as well double-check before my insurance investigator and his son takes a look. You know, you wouldn't want anything to go wrong, right?"

At the mention of insurance investigator and his son Blair smirked, a similar smirk to Nate when something had gone his way causing Sophie to fear a little for the duo arriving. Foss however missed it as Elliot handed back the scanner showing the same numbers as before.

"So, ready to make this official?" Sophie asked, placing the documents on the hood of the car, as Elliot took over from Blair who knew this was their way of dismissing her. She shot him a mischievous smile and ran off. She had to finish their plan as well as initiate her own. The moment she got into the stables she switched the plates from where Kentucky thunder was going to be placed and Baltimore, with that she stood by the motorbike her and Elliot were using to get back to Willie's stables. Half an hour later the cowboy came from the stables, "Ready to go Mini Ford," he called, looking happier than Blair had seen him the whole time they had been running the con. She couldn't help but return the smile, "what did you do?" he asked as he threw her a helmet and she laughed,

"Well let's just say, Zach is going to learn that our game is back on again." She told the cowboy with an air of mystery. Elliot had learned to let Blair do what she needed to do as sometimes it was better not to ask. So instead he revved the engine to life and the two shot off back to Willies.

Blair mused over her little gift she had left Zach in his jacket pocket as Elliot and her father left to tell Willie he was now the proud owner of a horse, she had decided to wander up and down his stables and look at the horses than see the man himself even though she knew she was the reason her dad had accepted the job in the first place. When they were childen Zach and Blair had come up with a way to communicate without their fathers noticing, at first it was a fun secret between friends but when that friendship died it became a symbol they both used to gloat. If Blair wanted Zach to know she had been somewhere, pulled one over on him or just wanted his attention (the boy had always been able to read the subtext of the gifts) she left him a origami lily. Pretty to anyone who didn't know their meaning. She turned put her hands in the pockets of her jacket as she looked at the horses, frowning as felt something inside the right one. As she pulled out the object she couldn't help but smirk, there in her hand sat a origami Crain, the symbol Zach used for her, nestled inside it was an old golden locket. She knew this was him congratulating her in his own sort of way, as the locket was something else from their years long ago as friends. She smirked, she didn't realise how nice it was to have her own sterling to outwit and gloat over.

"Next horse I get, I'm naming him Mr. Ford." Announced Willie, her father, Elliot and Aimee as they left the office. Causing Blair to stuff the object back into her pockets and turn to look at them all.

"Mr. Ford. Well, I look forward to putting money on Mr. Ford" Nate chuckled before turning to look at Elliot, "ready to go?"

"eh-could you give me, uh?" Was all the cowboy could stutter, but Nate nodded, turning on his heel and walking up to Blair, putting an arm round her so she too could give Elliot some privacy with the pretty blonde.

Blair got told everything she needed to know though as Elliot clambered back into te car. The moment he saw her smirk he groaned and muttered 'shut up' causing Blair to laugh and shake her head. As her father backed out the stables, she pulled out the necklace and the Crain again. She knew this was a symbol of the game being on between the two, and that excited her immensely. Zach was the batman to her Cat woman, she would say Joker but she wasn't mad enough to be him just yet. If the two were anything like their fathers this would be a very long and very interesting game of chess starting up between the two.

* * *

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	11. Chapter 11

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 4, The Miracle Job ~ Pt. 1**

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"Robert, you shouldn't have sent over the flowers" Blair sighed happily down the phone, as she looked over roses that now sat on her desk in the Leverage offices, yes they were cliché and they wouldn't have been her first choice in flower but honestly Blair didn't mind. She had never been set flowers before and the sweet gesture from her boyfriend couldn't help but make her smile, "I know you are in a meeting at the moment about you helping out at the hospital, but you'll be glad to know as of yet no new cases so I won't be flying off anywhere anytime soon. Speak to you later, love you." She hung up the phone and rearranged the flowers a little, before turning to look back at her school work that sat half-done on her desk.

Thankfully before Blair could even think about any school work a helpful distraction came in the form of Elliot as he rushed past her little cubby headed straight to the kitchen. If it wasn't for the fact Blair had now been working with the team for a while, or due to the fact she had gone out her way to try to get to know each member of the team on a personal level (to the point they were comfortable sharing of course) she wouldn't have understood the look on his face. But she could read the look on his face; that was his bro-sos look. Curiously getting the better of her, as it always did, Blair rose from her wheelie office chair and slowly followed behind the cowboy as he entered the kitchen in a rush. Hardison was already in there, placing his usual orange drink into the fridge as is supply in the office was dwindling to a dangerous level and he needed the stuff to function, a bit like Blair with coffee. Blair moved into the room and smiled at him and Elliot flicked on the kettle, turning to face Hardison

"Hey, Sophie's here." He told him, though Blair knew it was a warning for her also. "Man, what do I tell her?" he asked them both in a serious tone.

"Anything but the truth," Hardison advised as he stood up, twisting the top of the bottle in his hand. The hiss from the gas inside being heard as Elliot looked over at Blair desperately.

"I'm in the same boat as you here, Eli!" she paused before frowning a realisation coming to her, "in fact I'm probably in a worse boat, it's obviously she is totally my one-day-step-mother when my dad takes his head out of his glass of alcohol and finally opens his eyes, so I need to play nice, starting now!" The look of horror at the realisation she needed to play extra nice caused both men to laugh at Blair good humouredly.

"Love the sound of a happy office when I arrive," came the familiar voice of Sophie who walked into the kitchen and looked around at them all with a smile, "Hello"

Hardison just nodded a greeting as he stood back to watch the show knowing one of them would slip up and he refused to talk first unless it was him

"Hey Sophie." Was all Blair said.

While Elliot looked anywhere but at Sophie muttering a soft, "Hey."

"Thank you two so much for coming to my play last night" Sophie said, grabbing a cup and pouring coffee into it as she looked at Elliot and Blair.

The girl smiled and nodded at her, "It was a great idea for me and Robert to go see it as a date, thanks for suggesting it Sophie." The woman smiled at the young teen and turned to Elliot expectantly.

"Oh…" was all he could say before Parker bounced into the kitchen area, stopping at the door to look around at everyone before addressing Sophie.

"Last night was awesome!" she told the woman with such enthusiasm that Hardison, Elliot and Blair physically all reacted to the blonde's news. Hardison's jaw dropped causing the orange drink to pour out of it, Elliot poured boiling hot water over his hand as he made coffee for himself and Blair (she had seen him put the kettle on and knew he wouldn't hear the end of it if he didn't make her a coffee) and Blair almost fell off the table she had perched herself on.

Thankfully Sophie missed all these reactions as she shot the blonde girl at the door a wide smile, "thanks, Parker."

"Yeah, it was like a horror movie." She joked, and this time the other three in the room reacted once again but all of them tried not to be caught laughing as Parker mimed part of the show " _Attention must be paid!"_

"Oh." Was all Sophie could say, sounding a little detected.

Blair caught Hardison's eye and raised her eyebrows as if to get him to improve the situation somehow, "Yeah, I mean," Hardison stuttered a little under the intense glare of Blair turning to face Sophie, "You're not the first person I would think of to play Willy Loman, but you-you worked it out."

"Yeah!" Elliot agreed

"Oh!" Sophie repeated this time sounding a lot happier than she had originally. With that she turned on her heel and left the room, Parker and Hardison following behind her.

Elliot turned and held out a coffee for Blair who jumped down from the table and grabbed it from him, taking a sip from her soul fuel, "That was the worst night of my life," he muttered to the girl as they slowly followed the group.

"Come on, you have totally been in worse situations than one of Sophie's shows" Blair told him knowingly. She had been reading into his file for fun and he had told her a few stories which Blair would claim was worse than Sophie's play.

"No, no." Elliot shook his head, "that was the worst" this caused Blair to smirk and roll her eyes a little at him.

Blair and Elliot were the last two to enter the room just in time to hear Sophie look at Nate and say, "Nate, I-I played the part as a man." This caused Blair to let out a giggle as she settled herself in her usual seat between Elliot and Parker causing her dad to wink at her with a grin before he turned to Sophie again.

"Yes, and Brilliantly,"

"Thanks!" Sophie replied settling herself, clearly happy to hear the comment from Nate.

"Yeah, I mean, you were…" Nate started as he turned back to look at Sophie but was interrupted as his mobile started ringing, picking it up he looked at the caller ID they all saw his face fall into a frown as he moved from the room answering, however they all heard "Hi Maggie? Is everything okay?"

This mention of Blair's mother caused the girl to frown straight away. "Who's Maggie?" Parker asked straight away, noticing Blair's reaction to the woman's name.

"Nates ex-wife." Was all Sophie replied sounding concerned.

Blair insisted on joining her father as he visited her uncle Paul, rushing into the man's room and instantly hugging him causing him to laugh and hug her back. It had been a while since she had seen her 'uncle' and she was happy to see him again. "Hey, munchkin!" The sight of Blair and his best friend grinning at each other was a sight Nate hadn't seen in a long while. He knocked on the door to announce his presence and Paul looked over at him, "Ah two of you. If I thought I'd get you to visit and bring my favourite Ford with you," Paul poked Blair's nose like she was five not 18, causing her to pull a face a little, "I'd have gotten my ribs kicked in a little sooner."

"Don't say that!" Blair frowned as she sat down at the bottom of his bed, away from her uncles Booping finger.

"How you doin', Paul?" Nate asked

"I got my shots in." Paul replied with a shrug, "I popped the first guy in the shoulder before I blacked out."

"We know," Blair told him with a smile and Paul looked from Blair to Nate questioningly, "we read the police report." She explained, looking at her father too, she thought her uncle knew the work they did. That's why they had been called.

"You read the police report?"

"We do that." was all Nate replied with a shrug and Paul knew not to push his friend for answers.

"So you talk to Maggie?"

Blair frowned at her mother's name, and started to play with the bottom of the blanket.

"Do you think it was a coincidence that you got attacked on your way to beg the city council to save your church?" Nate asked ignoring the man's question.

Paul looked over at Nate, "no, I don't." he glanced back at Blair at the end of his bed before turning back to Nate, "You talk to Maggie a lot?"

"Yeah" Nate sighed in defeat.

"When is the sale final on the church?" Blair asked, for the first time, her tone blunt and straight to the point.

Paul looked at Blair in surprise, "Escrow closes Monday." The Teen nodded once and Paul turned back to Nate, "why?" both Fords knew he was talking about Maggie.

Suddenly there was a beep and a woman over the PA system called "Code Blue. Paediatrics. Code blue."

As people rushed down the hallway, Blair took some deep breaths gripping onto the end of the bed causing Nate to rush forward to her, "Blair…"

"I-I'm okay dad, I'm okay" Blair told her father with a shaky breath, shooting him a small smile.

"I'm sorry, I forgot that hospitals are tough for you two." Paul said knowing he couldn't lean forward to comfort the girl but wishing he could.

Nate straightened and looked Paul in the eye, "Paul, have you tried legal action? I mean, maybe an injunction –"

"With what money?" Paul replied with a shake of his head, "I thought it was god plan for me to save the church, Nate. I was wrong. But we're gonna have one last mass on Sunday, and I plan to make the most of it. You two should be there."

Nate nods his head as if he was going to be there, Blair however hopped off the bed and approached her uncle, "Sunday's mass isnt going to be your last mass, Uncle Paul"

"What are you two going to do?"

Blair paused and looked to her dad, unsure if they were taking his case or not for sure, "Just… moving gods… plans along." Nate told the man carefully, winking to his daughter telling them this was their next cause.

It only took a phone call and the whole of the Leverage crew found themselves wandering inside St. Nicholas Church. Hardison, Sophie and Elliot looking serious as they were now on the job, though Parker paused near the back of the church to look a statue up and down, "is that St. Nicholas?" she asked.

"Yes" Hardison said.

"Santa Claus has a church?" she asked, turning to follow the rest of the team towards where Nate and Blair were stood.

"He's not Santa Claus." Was all Elliot could tell the blonde who rolled her eyes at him.

"I know this is not our usual kind of case." Nate said the moment they arrived, "but before you say anything, Paul is an old friend of mine, and he has helped the poor parishes –"

"Nate." Sophie tried to interrupt him.

"More than you could ever –"

"Nate, Nate!" Sophie finally shut him up, "Blair has already informed us of your connection, and we have decided to take the case."

"Oh!" was all Nate could say turning to share a look with Blair who smiled and shrugged, did he really think she wouldn't tell them the reason why they wanted them to come down.

"Yeah."

"Oh. Great. Good. Oh. Alright." Nate turned and got into case mode, "well, uh, this is obviously a strong-arm manoeuvre that's happened here –"

"Get rid of the activist priest and the sale closes on Monday" Blair interrupting her dad to summarise the long explanation she knew he would give the team.

"-do we know anything about who bought the church?" Nate turned to Hardison, knowing if Blair informed them on the case he probably did some research on the travel down to the church.

"The sigh outside said it was a sold to Cannity Corp" he said in a deadpan voice, as he lifted his phone with the picture of the sign for him to show. Instantly Blair and Ford gave him a look, knowing he did more than that, "now, Cannity Corp is a wholly owned subsidiary of STB International, which is a parent company of Akai diversified, which is the U.S. subsidiary of Cannity Corp."

"That is a lot of trouble to go to for buying an old church," Sophie commented.

"Yeah, so, Cannity Corp—that's clearly a front." Blair added, and Nate nodded his head in agreement, looking at Parker.

"Parker," He said, "Check all the addresses for the real companies." The girl nodded her head before turning on her heel and walking out the church, "Elliot, Hardison – find the local talent that attacked Paul."

"He messed up one of their shoulders that should help us!" Blair added, moving to walk with the boys, until she felt a hand on her shoulder stopping her.

"You're not going with them Blair, I'm not putting you in danger." Nate muttered and Blair looked up at him and nodded. There was something in his look that she didn't have it in her to argue with him.

"No, no!" Hardison argued pointing his finger at them.

"Let's go, come on" Elliot groaned, clearly unhappy he was going to have to deal with Hardison.

"I don't do gangs!"

"Come on!"

"Blair's not going!"

"She goes outside sometimes. We're getting some fresh air. Getting you off the computer!"

"I rapple!"

"Come on!" with that Elliot managed to shove Hardison towards the door, a smile on Blair's face as she watched their interaction. The two were as opposite as two could be but she knew deep deep (deep deep deep) down they did care for one another. As the door shut Blair turned to her father, he was gazing up at the altar of the church. Blair hadn't told the group that the church itself was important to their family, she had simply said the priest was a family friend, but in reality this church held so many memories for the Fords. Her parents were married here, both Blair and Sam were christened here and Blair knew one day she herself may be married here (that was her dads hope anyway when she eventually found someone worthy of her). It held important memories for both Blair and Nate and that was something she couldn't simply tell the others. Quietly she approached her dad and slipped her hand into his larger on, giving his hand a small squeeze.

Sophie watched as father and daughter shared a moment and couldn't help but ask the question that had been playing on her mind, "are you two going to be okay?"

"He is an old friend, I owe him." was Nate could reply.

The second Blair got to Leverage HQ she was on the phone to Robert, they had come to an agreement of sorts that whenever the team had a case she would tell him the basics and what it probably would involve so he wouldn't worry. However Blair knew it really was because a certain blonde haired friend of hers had blabbed about Zach and how he and Blair had to act in the horse job, but Blair wasn't annoyed at Parker for that. It wasn't like it was a secret or anything, and she knew if she tried to hide that she and Zach had to act couply that it would appear as if something had happened, when it clearly didn't. Robert didn't see it like that, and refused to talk to Blair for a week and it actually took Elliot going to the hospital to see Robert and talk some sense into him. She knew he was angry with the boy, especially seeing as Elliot was one of the people having to deal with Blair moping around unsure of how to fix a situation that had been blown way out of proportion but he refused to talk to her about it. So since then, they agreed she would tell him when she was going onto a case and if she needed to do something like that again.

After that phone call Blair wandered through to the conference room, settling down in her seat next to Elliot and turning her attention to Hardison, "When I ran a trace on the gangbanger's call, it routed through this dude's number from a pay phone"

"So we got nothing."

"Hold on, Hold on." Hardison said as he tapped away on the keyboard in front of him and Blair watched as on the screens a map popped up with a red dot appearing, "the pay phone is located here – The Residences at 8th Luxury condos brought to you by Andrew Grant."

"We know this guy." Blair muttered and Sophie nodded her head in agreement,

"He build the Meadow Mall on the west side, you know, the one with the monorail," she explained and Blair frowned, she knew the mall way to well thanks to Sophie.

"Now, this guy," Nate pointed his pen at the picture Hardison had thrown up of Andrew Grant, Blair thought he looked like every snobby business man they had dealt with. "He doesn't happen to own any of the shell companies that bought the church, does he?"

"Well," Hardison started, "I-I can't prove that, but, let's put it this way, those shell companies have their daddy's lyin' eyes"

This comment caused Blair to splutter as she tried not to laugh, and Elliot shot Hardison a confused look, "all right, what _do_ we know about this Grant guy?"

Hardison smirked before pressing a button and loads of articles and pictures of Grant could be seen on screen "Well, as you can see, the man's a media whore. He went through, like, nine publicists last year alone. He's, uh, cutting the ribbon on this place tomorrow," A picture of a large building popped up on the screen but that's not what Blair's sharp eyes caught. She saw an article near the back about Grant and a crash.

"Hardison, what's that about there? The article about Grant being in a crash." She asked, and the man dragged the link to the front of the screens.

"He survived a Helicopter crash last year. I checked out his pharmacy account. The man pops anti-anxiety pills like Pez." Blair raised her eyebrows in surprise that kind of information could come in handy, but her father was leading this case so she buried that at the back of her mind for now as Nate started talking.

"Well, publicists are like priests. You got to tell them all your secrets. So that is our way in. The question is, how?"

At this an idea started forming in Blair's head and a small, mischievous smile appeared on her face. Once upon a time that smile used to scare Nate, but these days he learned to trust it. Normally it resulted in a basic plan that he could go in and tweak up.

"What are you thinking?" Sophie asked, and Nate nodded his head towards Blair's smiling face and the woman let out a sigh. This wasn't going to be pretty. Out of all of them Blair took everything to heart. She was the heart and soul for every one of them on the team and the glue that held them together. This Grant had hurt her family, her uncle was in the hospital, meaning the girl wasn't going to have a simple plan.

"This guy beat up a priest" Blair said calmly, "I refuse to go easy on him."

"You are darn scary when you want to be, Little Miss" was all Hardison could say as he watched the young girl, her brain was thinking of a plan and she had a small creepy smile on her face.

Blair was sat in the reception area of the large building being built that Andrew Grant owned. The team (bar her father who was hidden amongst the reporters who were waiting for Grant to arrive) were all up on the construction site. Their goal was a simple one; get Sophie, or Kristi Connelly as her alias for the con was called, alone with Andrew Grant as they made their way down to meet the press. Sophie had to use that time to get a meeting with him so they could manipulate him into making her his new publicist. What they were going to do with the old one, Tomas if Blair's research was correct, they hadn't decided yet but Blair knew they could think up something creative.

The bubble gum bubble Blair was working on popped just as a buzz came in over the com in her ear, it was Sophie talking, "Mr. Grant? Kristi Connelly. I am a reporter with The Ledger. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."

"Miss Connelly, I don't know how you got up here," this comment from Grant caused Blair to smirk as she remembered Hardison's face as he and Blair practiced the sip wire they did from the building next door. "But the press conference is down in the lobby, it starts in 10 minutes."

"no, no, I understand. I just wondered if I could have a moment…" Blair could tell Sophie was stalling him as the team got into place.

"Franco!"

"Willy Wonka's here." Sophie muttered using the stupid code name Blair had made up foreman. She and Robert had watched Charlie and the chocolate factor the night before and it was on her brain when her dad asked her.

"Good, his rides almost here" Elliot's rough southern twang rang out in her head.

The next thing they all heard was Parker as she collided with something, or someone as Blair knew, "Oh! Oh my god! Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah" Grant muttered as he brushed her off.

"Oh my god!" Elliot apologised, "I'm so sorry!" Blair had no clue why he was apologising but as long as it didn't stop the plan of Parker switching Grant's anxiety pills with something she and Hardison had come up with it didn't matter.

"Okay, I'm in the elevator." Sophie whispered and Blair knew this was her que. Hardison had installed an app to her phone which controlled the elevator in the building and with the typing of the password the elevator Sophie and Grant found themselves ground to a stop. "Oh." She heard Sophie say as she gripped onto the side. It wasn't the smoothest of stops.

"I don't believe it!" Grant exclaimed.

"You better buddie because you are trapped!" Blair couldn't help but mutter.

"They are fixing up this lift right," Sophie commented, "There is probably a few bugs to work out."

"Unacceptable." Was all Blair could hear Grant say before his words became mutters for a moment? "Oh, seriously? No signal?" she then heard him say.

With a small smile Blair decided to let the elevator move again, "Oh!" Sophie sounded hopeful before the elevator stopped once again. This man had people hurt her uncle she was going to have fun playing with him.

"Okay. That's weird." Grant commented.

"Yeah"

"I'm not crazy about heights. Or enclosed spaced" the panic could be heard in Grants voice but the sentence they all wanted to hear came from Sophie.

"What is that you just took?"

"Actually it's Caffeine." Parker commented once Grant explained it was something for her nerves, "with a dash of dextroamphetamine" this last comment almost had Blair swallowing her gum in shock.

"You gave him speed?!" Elliot asked the Parker.

"He beat up a priest" was the only response Hardison could give for the way the man was now hyperventilating in the lift.

Blair glanced over at the group of reporters that was growing by the second as Grant started shouting about firing people if they didn't let him out. She needed to time this correctly and hope Sophie knew what she was talking about when she simple said 'get me alone with him, I'll make him look good'.

"Send us home." She heard Sophie say in her ear, and Blair allowed the elevator to head back down towards the press. "Come on. You have got to stand up and pick me up." Sophie told the man.

"What?"

"Trust me. And pick me up."

Watched from the corner of the lobby as the doors opened and Grant carried out Sophie calling out like someone had been murdered but very much looking the hero he loved in his press. From the smile on Sophie's face before she 'fainted' Blair could only assume she got the meeting they were hoping she would get with the man.

* * *

 **tell me your thoughts,**

 **Love**

 **Sazzacubz 13 xx**

 ***This is on wattpad too***


	12. Chapter 12

_*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line_

 **Season 1, Episode 4, The Miracle Job ~ Pt. 2**

* * *

The team where all in leverage HQ doing their own thing when Sophie came rushing back in. she had had her meeting with Grant and clearly their stunt the day before had gone well as he had hired her as his publicist, however because of that he had shown her his plans, plans she had taken and was now throwing onto their conference room table. Blair pulled one of the pictures to her as Parker spoke up, "He's building another mall on the site of the church."

"It's not even a mall." Sophie said with an annoyed groan, "it's a bloody 'lifestyle' centre. Eat, work, shop, play, all in one place."

"I don't like this guy." Elliot commented, just as Blair growled.

"I hate him." she knew she was being overly emotional but she didn't care. Honestly compared to the rest of the team when they were in 'con mode' she always looked overly emotional as they had all learned to keep their emotions at bay when on the job as they had been professionals for years now, but Blair was still young and new to the job, and she didn't see why she should do that anyway. Her emotions where her key asset to the team, she knew that and they knew that.

After sending Blair a confused look Hardison asked, "He doesn't want the closing of the church connected to him?" when Sophie nodded he let out a sigh, "I'll bet he's got the city council in his pocket and got the land for a song. Once this deal closes, he's free and clear. By the time they break ground on this mall, he'll be untouchable."

That didn't sound reassuring to Blair, and it seemed it didn't to Sophie either as she muttered, "Forget St. Nick. We'd be better off with the Patron saint of lost causes."

"No, no, no." Nate spoke looking towards Sophie, "He trusts you. You can hook him."

"Yeah, I know I can, Nate, but there's no time. I mean, we need a long con for this job, right? In three days, he owns that church."

"So we hit him hard now, indirectly" Blair spoke up, causing everyone to look her way, "stall the deal closing, buy us enough time to play the long game."

"You really think he's gonna fall for that?" Elliot asked the girl next to him, "this guy?" Blair nodded her head causing the cowboy to sigh, "I got to be honest with you. We're gonna need a miracle to save this church."

"So let's go steal ourselves a miracle" Nate told the team seriously with a nod of his head.

Blair was sat alone in the offices texting Robert. Her father claimed he needed an hour to think over a plan, so when the team came back in (coffee in hand) she wasn't surprised to see them ready to work.

"When a church defines a miracle as the work of god, usually through the prayers and intercessions of a saint, for some specific purpose, frequently the conversation of the unbelieving." Blair heard her dad mutter causing her to roll her eyes.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Elliot asked Nate as the two settled back down in the main office. Elliot handing Sophie a tea and Blair the large coffee which the girl happily took from her friend with a grin.

"Dad went to school with Uncle Paul." Blair answered Elliot's question causing the team to look at him in surprise.

"So you dropped out of priest school to become a-an insurance cop?" Elliot asked causing Nate to shoot his daughter an annoyed glance, "and now you're the leader of a band of thieves. Nice." This last comment caused a giggle from Blair causing Elliot to smile her way and wink at her.

"Y-You're a catholic who wants to fake a miracle." Hardison said slowly, "I'm pretty sure that puts us in moral-sin territory."

"So now you're religious, too?" Elliot asked, always happy to pick a fight with Hardison.

"No, no, I'm not denominational." Hardison retorted, "it's just, I never do anything my nana say 'don't do'." This caused Blair to quirk an eyebrow at him, Hardison had never mentioned his background before she was intrigued by this 'nana' but that was for after the con. "This, what we doin', it just don't seem right" Hardison concluded with a final flourish of his hands.

"What doesn't seem right?" Nate repeated looking towards Hardison before glancing around at the team, "Let me get this straight. We're trying to save a church, right? So, faking a miracle, to me, seems like the quickest way to do that."

"Even Andrew Grant's not going to build a mall on a holy site" Sophie agreed.

"Right, so we need three things. We need a miracle, we need publicity, and we need to keep Father Paul out of the way. He can't be involved in this at all." The last thing her father said Blair agreed with 100%, her Uncle needed to have nothing to do with this so whatever they get up too he could say it was a real miracle.

"Well reporters are constantly following Grant around, we could use him as bait" Blair commented, trying to help her father cross off 'to do's'.

"Use his own publicity to wreck his project." Parker repeated in awe looking at the teenager.

"That's elegant." Sophie nodded, causing Blair to blush a little under all the praise, looking over at her dad who was smiling at her proudly.

"Okay," Nate spoke up causing eyes to snap at him, "Parker, Blair, you two need to go to the hospital and keep Father Paul there no matter what," as Parker opened her mouth Nate added, "To a point. But just keep him in the hospital." The two girls nodded, and Blair smiled over at Parker, Blair hadnt worked one on one with the girl so she was excited. "Eliot, you're the retrieval specialist. Give Hardison anything he needs."

"As long as I don't have to do anything immoral.

"Ah, absolutely not." Nate smirked, "I just need you to figure out, you know, how to fake a miracle."

This caused Elliot and Blair to laugh as Hardison let out a groan, "We are all going to hell!" 

Blair sat on her Uncles bed as they chatted, he was to be let out the hospital today and she had told him she had come to help out in anyway possible. She felt bad she was lying to him and trying to stop him from leaving for a con, but at the same time she knew it was better he wasn't seen anywhere near the church whilst Hardison did whatever he was doing to fake a miracle. It took everything in her not to let out a laugh as Parker came in and took a sample of her uncles blood.

"You know, I'm getting out of here in a couple of hours" He told Parker the nurse.

"I'm here to take him home" Blair added when Parker looked her way innocently, causing Paul to smile at her.

"Yeah, it's just a few last tests to be on the safe side." Parker told them both and Blair shrugged before Parker left the two and Paul looked at Blair with an exasperated look.

"So if I'm to be here longer tell me whats happening with my favourite niece," Paul asked Blair who shrugged.

"There isnt much to tell, I now live with dad, mom and dad barely talk, dad has an alcohol problem and mom is a work-alcoholic. " Blair summarised with a sigh causing her uncle to glance her way with a look she couldn't read.

"What about boys? Any in your life?"

"I'm seeing this ex-vet," Blair started with a smile, pulling a photo up on her phone and showing it to her uncle, "His name is Robert, he's the sweetest guy ever."

"Do you love him?"

"I don't know, ive never been in love." Blair answered carefully, "but I can see myself perhaps loving him." this seemed like an answer her uncle liked and he changed the conversation once again.

It was a few hours later when the results came back in, Blair had popped out so her uncle could get dressed and she was hungry and wanted food, but she was the nurse enter and wandered to the open door just in time to overhear the nurse tell her uncle, "All right, Father. I got your test results right here. Hmm. High cholesterol, elevated SED rate…. And it looks like you're pregnant." This caused Blair to cover her mouth to prevent herself from laughing, "I'm gonna need you to stick around and re-test"

Blair took this as her que to walk back in just as the nurse was leaving the room sending her Uncle a confused look as he slumped back onto his bed.

Blair was lying on the sofa on her phone scrolling through social media in Sophie's personal office in Leverage HQ, her dad wasn't in and after driving her Uncle home she wanted to be in the company of someone even if it was just being in the same room and Sophie seemed to like the fact the girl found comfort with her. Sophie and Blair were both relaxing before the madness they knew the next day was going to be with Hardison's miracle happening as Grant's media conference was going outside the church. Both girls looked up when there was a knock on Sophie's door to see Nate standing there, "Can I talk to Sophie?" he asked, and Blair knew he meant alone and she nodded and got to her feet. As she passed her dad, she kissed his cheek and moved away, enough to be out of sight but she wanted to know why she wasn't allowed in on the conversation. "So Grant all lined up?" her dad asked Sophie.

"Yeah, he'll be there, with the press. Oh, um, I've been, Ive been making to ask you. How was it, you know, talking to Maggie again?" Blair tilted her head a little curious herself how her dad felt talking to her mom again as when it came to discuss Blair it was Blair who did all the talking to her mom as her parents refused to talk to one another.

"Uh good." Nate said, Blair could see him in her mind's eye scratching the back of his neck nervously, "Y-Yeah, strange. Good. Yeah, I still feel, uh…" her father trailed off but it seemed Sophie was happy to offer some words.

"What? Guilty? About Sam? About taking Blair from her?"

"no, no, not that." Nate said, and Blair felt happy her dad didn't feel guilty about taking her from her mom as it was her choice to move in with her dad. "I mean… other things-things, but…"

"You never cheated on her, Nate" this from Sophie caused Blair to pull a face. If they were going to go into that kind of chat she was going to leave.

"I know. I know. Tempted." Nate replied. Yep, Blair was learning more than she ever wanted, so she quickly rushed from her listening point as she wanted to know no more. Rushing into the kitchen she saw Hardison drinking from his bright orange drink who shot her a look.

"Whats bugging you?"

"I just heard something I can never unhear" Blair shuddered as she fell into a seat opposite the man who shook his head looking amused at the teenager.

Blair stood with the rest of the team as they watched Grant make his announcement on the steps of the church, all of them trying to hide their disgust at what he was saying.

"A lifestyle centre to revitalize the life of this neighbourhood. A pulsing heart of opportunity and commerce in the centre of the community" Blair almost doze off as the man talked, thankfully there was a good distraction in the form of her Uncles helper at the church a women called Lily who burst from the church screaming excitedly,

"Everybody come quickly! You have to see this! It's a miracle!"

Blair shot Parker a mocking shocked look as they watched people run into the church to see their miracle. It seemed St. Nicholas was now crying, or at least the fake one Hardison had spent making was. Blair didn't even bother to ask Elliot were the real one was or how they did the swap when he explained what they had been up too.

"Not too bad." Parker commented as the group slipped away.

"It was nothing, really." Hardison shrugged, smiling as Blair looped her arm in his and gave it a small squeeze, her own way to say well done. "It's just basic chemistry. An oil polymer that reacts with a secondary chemical in the candles. No candle smoke, absolutely no evidence. We simply needed to light a candle."

"That was all words to me, but either way you made a miracle happen Hardison!" Blair told the man who grinned at her.

"Local news will pick up on the event, Grant will crawl back into his hole for a while," Nate listed off and the group nodded, "well, at least for the time being, it will stay open to the public." Just as he said that he turned round the corner to see the huge crowd that was approaching the church, and it wasn't just news crews either.

"Whoa," Blair murmured, "I guess we didn't think that much through. A miracle dad, everyone will want to see it." Nate nodded, looking over the crowd.

"That's a lot of public" Parker said.

"I'm very good."

"A little too good." Elliot argued with the bosting man.

"What did we just do?" A voice came from behind them and they turned to see a worried Sophie.

"It's on YouTube" Blair groaned holding up her phone for the team to see.

"That's good, it means the church will never shut down." Elliot shrugged.

"There is so many people." Sophie exclaimed, before turning to look at Nate, clearly worried about something, "what if they find out it's a… fake?"

"Hell fire, damnation, etcetera." Hardison casually commented causing Blair to roll her eyes at him. "You know what? I'm gonna step over here, so when the good lord throws down on all of y'all, I don't get hit by the lightening."

"Isnt Zeus the one with the lightning?" Parker asked.

"So dramatic Hardison" Blair sarcastically commented before turning to look at the team.

"Guys, this is still a big win" Nate tried to reassure them but at their looks he let out a sigh and turned to Sophie, "Uh, find out where Grant is, and make sure he's –"

Before he could continue he and Blair were grabbed by Paul who dragged them away. "What did you two do?"

"What do you mean?" Blair tried to say innocently causing her uncle to shoot her a look.

"Come with me." Was all her uncle could say and she shot the team a look before directly followed her dad and uncle to the church where her uncle lead them to the balcony where they could see the crying statue without being in the crowds way.

"You don't believe in miracles?" Nate tried.

"The word 'miracle' does not appear anywhere in the new or old testaments."

"What about the wedding at Cana? Huh? What about Lazarus?" Blair rolled her eyes at her dad.

"Please tell me you had nothing to do with this!" Paul demanded of the two looking at Blair first.

"I had nothing to do with that crying statue." Blair told him, she chose her words specifically because technically she didn't so she wasn't lying. She was still in a church. Her uncle's eyes travelled to Nate who said,

"I had nothing to do with this."

"You're lying to me, right to me face! In a church?!" Paul whisper yelled at them before he seemed to realise something and looked at them in fear, "there is a fake miracle in my church." If this was anyone else Blair knew she would have laughed, but it was her uncle so she didn't. Instead she grabbed her uncle's hand and sent him an apologetic glance. "You know there is a reason you didn't become a priest, Nate!"

"I do what I can." Nate started,

"You can't play god, Nate." Paul interrupted, "just tell me whats going on and we'll try to fix it."

"Uncle Paul, it might be better you don't know. For your own good." Blair spoke up softly, causing Nate to nod his head as he put a hand on Blair's shoulder.

"But we promise you we have it all covered" he continued for his daughter. From the looks of the Priest in front of them, it was clear that didn't reassure the man what so ever.

* * *

 **tell me your thoughts,**

 **Love**

 **Sazzacubz 13 xx**

 ***This is on wattpad too***


	13. Chapter 13

_*This doesn't belong to me - All the characters and plots belong to TNT except from Blair*_

 **Season 1 Episode 4 Pt 3**

* * *

What should have been 'covered' as her father had promised her uncle, was not covered, not in the slightest? However, none of the team realised that until Sophie called for an emergency meeting outside the church, bringing with her photos as she explained Grants grand plan.

Due to the fact St. Nicholas was now a miracle spot he was planning on building a 'Bibletopia'.

As soon as the word left her mouth Hardison shot her a look and repeated, "Bibletopia?" as if to make sure he had heard the words right.

"The man cannot be stopped!" Sophie let out a frustrated groan as Blair and Parker nodded their heads in agreement.

"It's like everything we throw at him just makes him stronger," Parker added.

"I kind of admire him, though. My nephew would like Bibletopia" Elliot contributed, causing Blair to look at him.

"You have a nephew you haven't told me about?!"

Before Elliot could respond more than let out a chuckle at how offended Blair was pretending to be Hardison had started up, "this is what happens when you mess with God. He raises up your enemies with his right hand, and he smites you with his left."

Nate rolled his eyes before he took over the conversation calming the chaos, "No, no, no, no, no. so I can – we can use this." He told them all, as he leaned against the brickwork.

Blair frowned as she turned hearing dad stutter about how they could fix things but her eyes were on the black cars pulling up in front of the church, "Guys we have a new problem. The Apostolic Visitation has arrived."

They all watched as several older priests stepped out the cars and from beside her Blair heard her father swear under his breath before answering the unasked question that hung in the air, "It's the Vatican.," was all he said before he shot his daughter a worried glance.

Blair hurried after her father as they all made their way towards the entrance of the church, all eyes on the priests. "It's the Apostolic Visitation" was all Nate muttered to them as he stepped into the church.

Blair decided for the sake of the team she would be best explaining what that meant as it was clear her father was too busy to even think about the idea they wouldn't know, "They are like the Popes CSI." Blair started, making sure to keep her voice low, "They come, and they investigate a miracle. They determine whether it's real or a hoax."

"If they find out the truth, they're gonna close this church down and blame Father Paul for fraud," Sophie whispered after a moment as what had clicked with the father-daughter duo finally clicked with her. From the back of the church, she turned to Nate, "I don't like this Nate. I mean, even Grant, okay? He was hooked. Ordinarily, we'd have him under control by now."

Blair bit her lip as she took in Sophie's words and glanced at her father, who was glancing back at the door a little preoccupied – though he did answer Sophie, "We'll get around him. We'll save the church and we'll take out Grant –"

"You screwed up." Sophie hissed, interrupting the man, "You're gonna have to undo your own con."

Before anyone else could say anything footsteps caused them all to look round. Father Paul was approaching the investigative priests, "Gentlemen." He started.

It only took a look shared between them before the father-daughter duo jumped into action, "Ah! Father, Father!" Nate yelled, approaching Father Paul, Blair on his heels pretending to look worried. "Excuse me –"Nate looked over to the investigative priests and add, "I'm having a big spiritual crisis. You guy can understand more than anyone." With that he turned to Father Paul and started to pull him away, "I need to talk to you right now. You are the only one..."

The moment they were out of earshot of the other priests Blair decided to chime in, "Please don't tell me you were about to do what we know you were just about to do?" she asked her Godfather.

"What tell the truth? You bet I was!" He told Blair before looking to Nate, "No more lies! The Vatican's here. You and I both know what that means."

"Yeah, break out the grappa." Nate couldn't help but add, not that it helped the situation.

"Does my getting defrocked amuse you?!" Paul demanded of his friend, Blair could tell he was getting more and more pissed off with them by the second.

"No listen, Listen" Nate started, looking around, "I just-just, let me explain this to you, okay? I just..." his eye caught the confessional booth and he gestures to Paul to enter it, "in here."

Blair knew not to follow the men as they entered the confessional, instead, she turned to watch Sophie as she approached the investigative priests. Normally she would have approached the woman and helped her with whatever she was up too, but something in her gut told her not to – and after 10 minutes had passed she was glad she hadn't because Grant, Tomas and some Photographer came bombarding into the church like a tornado.

Sophie noticed them at the same time Blair did as was quick to excuse herself from the priests before approaching Grant. Posing as an idle member of the public here for the miracle Blair wandered over to the group too so she could overhear what was being said, "Andy, um, there's a bit of trouble. Nothing alarming, it's just... the Vatican's here." Sophie told Grant.

"I know," the man said excitedly, "isn't it great?"

"Great?"

"If they think it's real, we go forward with Bibletopia." The name coming from Grant's mouth sounded worse than all the mocking ones Blair, Hardison, and Parker had been telling each other over their Comms. Grant said it with such love and devotion that Blair had to look away in fear her facial reaction would give the game away. "If they exposed it, well, then I get good press for closing this fraud parish. You see, when people say 'controversy' I hear 'attention'"

"Andy..."

"What?"

"You are shameless!" Where Blair could hear the worry in Sophie's tone Andy Grant could hear admiration.

"Oh, you get me so well." He muttered to Sophie in a flirty sort of way before Turing to the photographer he had brought in with him, "Hey, come on, get a picture with these guys." With that, the man turned and walked towards the priests. Sophie shared an uneasy look with Tomas before following after him. Blair couldn't help but feel everything was getting more and more out of hand and she had no clue how they were going to fix any of it.

Later that evening, when the church was empty and the team of priests had just left the team all came of the confessional booth they had squeezed themselves into.

Of course, Hardison was the first one to start talking, "As soon that Van full of Vatican CSI equipment gets here. We're crewed!"

"You know that was what I was trying to say, but you guys wouldn't let me talk while we were all in the closet!"

"Confessional booth." Nate and Blair spoke simultaneously correcting the girl.

"If we leave it here, they're gonna find out the statues isn't really crying and blame Father Paul for fraud," Sophie spoke up to bring them back to the issue at hand.

Elliot scoffed and crossed his arms, "Sophie, if we steal the statue, he's gonna get blamed for covering up a fraud."

This comment seemed to cause Nate to laugh. Blair looked up at her dad as she pulled Elliot's Hoodie around her body more trying to keep some heat in her as they stood in the freezing church. She knew the look in his eye, a plan was forming. A ridicules plan, but a plan.

"This ain't funny!" Hardison tried to explain to Nate who looked a little crazy at the moment, "As soon as they run a scan or a pH stick over that statue they're gonna see those ain't real tears!"

"You're right." Nate agreed with Hardison with a nod of his head, "It's only a matter of time,"

"Plus Father Paul, he won't help himself, he had to tell the truth and he will eventually," Blair added causing Nate to smile and nod at her. That was true.

Hardison looked between the Fords as if trying to find out why they were so happy even though they found themselves in a serious situation. "I hope this is the part where you suggest prayer..."

"No, the weeping statue of St. Nicholas is not gonna be stolen." Nate informed them all, "it's gonna miraculously disappear in the middle of tomorrow's mass."

It took a full minute before any of them could respond to the insanity of Nate's plan.

"I'm sorry?" Sophie asked as if making sure she had heard Nate correctly.

"In front of the priest, the Vatican, the entire congregation!"

"Have you learned nothing, Nate?"

A chuckle came from Nate as a response to Sophie's question, "How much does the statue weigh?" He asked Hardison.

"About 900 pounds."

"Good..."

"I'm sorry Nana" Hardison muttered looking up to the ceiling.

"I hope you know what you're doing Dad." Blair couldn't help but mutter, though Nate heard her and gave her a confident smile.

Blair honestly hadn't been to Church service since Sam's funeral, so she couldn't help but fidget as she sat next to her dad near the front of the church.

"The Lord be with you." Father Paul spoke to the congregation as a whole.

"And also with you." The congregation said as it got to its feet for the gospel reading.

"A reading from the gospel according to Luke."

"Glory to you, Lord." As Blair repeated the words and drew the crosses on her forehead, lips, and heart she looked around to see Sophie, Grant, and Tomas enter the church.

"A man had a fig tree in his Vineyard, but it did not bear fruit." Paul began to read, "So he said to the man who took care of the Vineyard, "for three years, I've been looking for fruit on this tree, and for three years, I've found nothing. It's a waste of my land. Cut it down." "Sir," the worker replied, "leave it alone for one more year. Let me dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, all is well."

Blair glanced at her dad then at her watch, she knew at that moment Elliot, Hardison, and Parker wherein the bell tower getting ready to do the impossible.

"If not, then cut it down," this is the gospel of the lord!" Paul finished

"Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ!" the congregation finished before settling down in their seats again.

"Repent or perish! That's Luke 13. Tough to swallow, huh?" Paul informed them all, "but like all parables, this one open to interpretation. Was the worker just being lazy? Stalling? 'I'll get to it, boss. Next year. Manana'

This caused the ripple of laughter to come from the congregation, from everyone but Nate, Blair, and Sophie who were all waiting with breath held for Parker to do the impossible.

"Or did the worker have a secret?" Paul asked. "a secret, that only our faith sustains us over time. The owner," with that he made a not so subtle gesture at the back where Grant was stood, "Only the worker is there every day in the dirt, with the tree. He had faith in his skills and faith that God will support that skill and maybe, in a year's time, the tree will bear fruit. He doesn't look for the easy way out. He doesn't say, 'Oh, why would the Lord do this to me? If only he would give me a sign. If only he'd give us a miracle'. But the worker doesn't ask for a miracle. He had faith in himself and Faith in God, and he only asks for time." with that Father Paul paused and looked over to where Nate and Blair stood. They knew this last section was for them and Blair couldn't help but look away under her Uncle's gaze. "Let us proclaim our faith!"

With that, the Congregation stood again and bowed their heads in prayer. As one they all say, "We believe in one god, the Father, the Almighty-"

Blair looked up and glanced at the statue to see Parker getting lowered towards the statue, "The maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen." Blair made sure to keep talking she watched her friend hug onto the statue, "We believe in one lord, Jesus Christ, the only son of God." A small smile threatened to break onto Blair's face a she watched Parker make an 'shh' at a little girl in the back row who had seen her in the act, before the statue began to lift up – thanking Hardison once again for getting too carried away with the polystyrene statues that littered their office space that they had witched the real statue the night before. With that Blair bent her head again so no one would know she was watching, "Eternally begotten of the father. God from God, light from light, true God from true God. Begotten, not made one in being with the father."

"For us men, for our salvation..." Paul paused as he noticed the missing statue.

"I saw what happened!" The little girl yelled, moving out into the aisle, "an angel took it away!"

The whole of the congregation turned to see the empty place the statue had been in. A panicked wave of murmurs started. "Calm down, people! That's not what happened!" he turned and saw Nate and Blair sharing smirks before looking out a window to see Parker leaning on their van. "I know what's going on." With that, he stormed from the church, his congregation on his heels.

Heading straight for the van he said, "There is no miracle! Someone stole the statue!" with a dramatic flourish – or so Blair thought – he opened the back doors of the van to reveal the statue lying inside, "And I know who it is!"

Paul paused and turned to Nate and Blair both of whom winked at him, but before he could reveal it was them Hardison came round the corner holding the license plate details and spoke up, "Andrew Grant."

"Hey, that's the guy that bought the church!" Elliot screamed from the crowd.

"That is not my van!" Grant tried to defend.

Hardison wasn't having any of it though, "What kind of monster fakes a miracle for a profit? You sicken me!"

That's all the crowd needed to start throwing insults at Grant.

"The priest is desperate. Look, he hid the statue in the van. He forged the registration papers to frame me!"

Blair couldn't help herself as she yelled, "I don't believe you!" causing the crowd to yell the same things. Nate elbowed Blair as she let out a giggle.

"Look, look, Look," Grant started, grabbing Tomas as if to use him as a shield, "Right here. See? My Assistant, he was with me the whole time. Okay? Look now. We bought this property, we're gonna fix the neighborhood. Right?"

"No," Tomas spoke up softly.

"No?" Grant repeated looking perplexed

"No!" Tomas repeated looking a lot more confident, "he got the land under this church the same way he bought the rest, the same way he gets all his properties. By bribery, intimidation, and violence. It was Andrew Grant who sent a bunch of thugs to beat up Father Paul!" he told everyone causing a gasp from the crowd.

"You bully!" one man screamed causing Grant to back away as a police car pulled up.

"You're going to have to think very hard about this." Grant told Tomas, "We're gonna have a long discussion." Before he could say anything else cuffs got slapped onto his wrists.

"The cops got here fast," Parker spoke from beside Blair.

"It's almost as if an investigative journalist called them with a tip-off," Sophie muttered from next to Nate causing Blair and Parker to laugh.

"Kristi, save me, huh?" Grant demanded, "You can spin this, right? Instead of 'felony' maybe soften it?" before anything else could be said the cops started pulling him away and Sophie turned to him with a smirk, speaking in her normal accent.

"You know, when you say 'controversy,' I always hear 'attention!" giving the man a small wave as he looked at her in shock, finally realising he had been played.

Once the drama had died down a little the group all found themselves the only ones in St Nicholas Church. Nate feeling like he should talk to Father Paul about everything before they left.

"You used me," Nate spoke as the priest approached the Alter.

"Yeah, well, you used me too." Paul teased as Nate turned around.

"You broke the seal of the confessional and told everyone the statue was a fake."

"To save the faith of my parish."

Nate couldn't help but smile and shake his head at that, "Wrong act, right reasons." He looked at his friend, "End justify the means, father?"

Paul sighed before saying, "I'll count myself blessed and take my miracle, as I watch another develop before my eyes."

"Ah, but there was no miracle,"

"Nate, five thieves saved my church. And my goddaughter has a family – I'd call those miracles"

Nate turned and looked at him, before seeing where he was looking. Paul was looking at the group who were all sat in the pews waiting. Well, Sophie, Parker, Hardison, and Elliot were, Blair was leaning on Elliot with her phone out playing some game with Hardison on their phones, Parker leaning over the darker boy to watch the whole thing – Sophie's mothering eye watching over them with an amused expression.

A smile appeared on Nates face as he took in the scene, he had made a family for Blair, a strange one, but one he knew would never leave her, "it was good to see you, Paul." He told his friend holding out a hand.

Paul shook it with a smile, "You better plan on being here next Sunday. I've got a great sermon one making amends."

"We'll see."

"You'll be back here one day." Paul looked over at Blair and both men knew Nate would be back. The day Blair chose to get married would be the next time Nate would be back, "I have faith in you."

With that, Paul walked away. Nate glanced over at the candles of remembrance and lit one, before turning and walking towards his team.

Hearing the boss come over Hardison tapped the teenager's leg and she rolled her eyes before putting her phone away as they got to their feet. Elliot deciding to give her a piggyback as they headed towards the door.

"Look at that. Saved a Church!" Hardison told them all.

"It's like Christmas!" Parker agreed before looking at the statue, "I told you St. Nicholas is Santa..."

"No, he's not Parker," Sophie told the girl.

"Well, who is he, then?"

Blair was happy to tell the girl, and she smirked, looking around at her family, "he is the patron saint of thieves."

* * *

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 **Love you all Sarah xx**

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